Vegetable and Soil Contaminations with Heavy Metals and Human Health Risks in the Southern Selected Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
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Date
2009
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DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the heavy metals (HMs) contamination in
soil and vegetable and their associated human health risk in southern selected districts
(Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat, Hangu, and Lakki Marwat) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Province, Pakistan. The selected study area is highly vegetable growing belt, where local
farmers use the agro-chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides
indiscriminately. HM contamination not only damages the quality of natural resources
and food but also badly impacts our food production. Soil and vegetable samples were
collected from the study area in summer and winter. These samples were analyzed for
selected metals such as copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), manganese
(Mn), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), using atomic absorption spectrophotometry (Perkin
Elmer AAS-700) in Central Recourse Laboratory, (CRL), University of Peshawar
(Pakistan), while total arsenic (TAs) and its organic species such as monomethylarsonic
acid (MMA) and dimethylarsonic acid (DMA) and inorganic species including arsenite
(AsIII) and arsenate (AsV) in the soil and vegetable were determined using high
performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system with inductively coupled plasma
mass spectrometry (HPLC ICP-MS) in Arizona Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants
(ALEC), University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.