Abstract:
Vegetables are mostly grown with untreated city-effluent around big cities. Most of the farmers consider city-effluent as a good source of irrigation, due to its availability and cheapness. A problem may arise when city-effluents have high concentrations of toxic elements, like Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Lead (Pb) and Nickel (Ni) causing adverse effect on the human health, if found in high concentration in the food. An effort was made to determine the concentration of metal ions in the effluent-irrigated vegetables from different sites around Faisalabad (Pakistan). The effluent of Faisalabad city was sampled weekly from these sites. A number of vegetables, such as Spinach [Spinacia oleracea L.], Egg plant [Solarium melongena L], Okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench], Bitter gourd [Momordica charantia L.] and Pumpkin [Cucurbita moschata (Duch.) Duch. ex Poir], grown in the effluent irrigated fields were sampled. The samples of city-effluent and vegetables were analysed for different metal-ions, with the help of Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. In both these, the concentration of metal ions was found above-the recommended level for irrigation water and foodstuff.
Page(s):
58-60
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Science, Technology and Development, Volume: 22, Issue: 4, Year: 2003