Human health risk assessment of heavy metals in different compartments of vegetables from Erbil City-Iraq

IntroductionThe consumption of vegetables is a key route for increasing the content of potentially toxic heavy metals in the food chain. This article aimed to quantify the concentrations of As, Se, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Ni, and Pb in different parts of vegetables harvested from Erbil city.MethodologyThe total concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Ni, and Pb in various vegetable parts were pursued by ICP-MS analysis.ResultsThe values of heavy metals in different parts of the analyzed vegetables ranged from 0.052 to 2.106 mg/kg for As, 0.024 to 5.899 mg/kg for Se, 0.014 to 0.753 mg/kg for Cd, 0.441 to 89.400 mg/kg for Cr, 0.052 to 2.693 mg/kg for Co, 0.737 to 39.120 mg/kg for Cu, 0.301 to 63.880 mg/kg for Ni, and 0.032 to 1.782 mg/kg for Pb. The Hazard Quotient (HQ) values for As, Cr, Cu, and Ni in the edible parts of most vegetables exceeded one, while those for Se, Co, Cd, and Pb were below one.DiscussionIn contrast to Se, Co, Cd, and Pb, the HQ values for As, Cr, and Pb indicate a potential health risk when consuming these edible parts of the vegetables. The Hazard Index (HI) for all edible parts of the analyzed vegetable samples exceeded one. The cancer risk (CR) of As, Cd, Cr and Ni were higher than 1.0 × 10^-4 which indicating carcinogenic risk. As a result, regular consumption of these vegetables is regarded as unsafe and not advisable.