Overview
Rani and colleagues collected 111 samples of 19 vegetables from industrial areas of Haryana in the winter of 2017-18 and measured ten metals by atomic absorption on a dry-weight basis. Leafy vegetables, especially mustard and spinach, carried the most lead, cadmium and iron, and total hazard quotients exceeded 1 for every vegetable.
Key numbers
- Mustard: lead 4.01 ± 3.81, cadmium 0.33 ± 0.14, chromium 6.39 ± 5.35 mg/kg dw (Table 2, p. 624).
- Spinach: lead 1.57 ± 2.43, cadmium 0.47 ± 0.6 mg/kg dw (Table 2, p. 624).
- Carrot: cadmium 0.325 ± 0.39 mg/kg dw, lead not detected; potato: lead 0.8 ± 0.05, cadmium not detected (Table 2, p. 624).
Methods (brief)
Washed vegetables were oven-dried at 60 °C, ground and digested with nitric, sulfuric and perchloric acids, then read by flame AAS. Triplicates, reagent blanks and a reference standard (within 5 percent of certified values) were used; no LOD is stated.
Evidence Fitness
Industrial-area sampling, so values are not typical of ordinary supply; one site used wastewater irrigation. Per-vegetable counts are small, and Table 2 prints n = 4 for every vegetable although Table 1 gives 3 to 15. Direct for non-root and root vegetables as raw produce; it is a proxy for root-vegetable-purees, which is not linked.