Overview
Nowar and colleagues searched the literature for cross-sectional studies of heavy metals in Bangladeshi vegetables, compiled fresh-weight means, and estimated daily intakes, hazard quotients and cancer risks. It is a systematic review with no new measurements, so it serves as context only.
Key numbers
- Compiled mean ranges across vegetables: arsenic 0.02 to 0.45, lead “Not detectable (ND)-9.45”, cadmium 0.00 to 0.51 mg/kg fresh weight (Abstract).
- Hazard quotients above 1 for arsenic and lead in some vegetables, including cabbage, string bean, bottle gourd and green papaya (Abstract).
Methods (brief)
Database and manual searches, screening in Rayyan by two independent reviewers, inclusion of English-language peer-reviewed cross-sectional studies reporting fresh-weight data, then pooled means and US EPA risk formulas.
Evidence Fitness
Review-level context: the compiled values are quotes of other papers and are not recorded as findings. Primary studies it cites should be ingested from their own texts. It does not measure a mixed-vegetable product, so it is not linked to vegetables-mixed.