Understanding the association of heavy metal contamination between vegetables and its growing soil

Heavy metals are natural constituents of the Earth's crust and trace amounts are always present in biological materials. They are defined more specifically as electropositive elements having a density greater than five. Through consumption of vegetable crops, dietary exposure to several heavy metals including Nickel (Ni), Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Cobalt (Co), Lead (Pb), Arsenic (As), Mercury (Hg), Zinc(Zn) and Copper (Cu), has been recognized as a risk to human health. The study was carried out to understand the source and magnitude of heavy metal contamination in soil and various kinds of vegetables like potato, red amaranth us, spinach, carrot, cabbage, tomato and brinjal at Thane, Maharashtra where these vegetables are grown. The concentration of Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn) in the study area soil are higher than that of standard level. The Lead (Pb) in vegetables was found to be higher than the permissible limits of different International standards. Except lead, it is concluded that nearly all the samples did not exceed the Intentional Food Standards maximum level (ML). If contaminated soil and vegetables contribute to a progressive gathering of these metals in food chain there might possible to deep alternations of ecosystem with possible noxious effect on human health. Our study highlights that vegetables growing soil containing higher amount of metals that could be transferred into edible parts of the plant, so study area should be monitored regularly to avoid health risk of human being due to exposure of toxic level.