Evaluation of heavy metals uptake by wheat growing in sewage water irrigated soil

ABSTRACT

Present research work was carried out in Sahiwal, Sargodha, Pakistan. Diverse treatments of domestic wastewater were used for ascertaining the contamination level in grains of wheat crop. Food crop exposure to heavy metals has been a subject of great concern due to potential health risks to humans. It was observed that increased proportion of wastewater resulted in elevation of heavy metals both in soil and wheat grains. The iron was found to be higher in comparison to all other studied metals in soil. Similarly, wheat grains had high Cd level. Cadmium had the highest values for daily metal intake, health risk index, and pollution load index. Except Co, all metals were positively and significantly correlated between wheat grains and soil. Zinc had the highest bioavailability due to its highest bioconcentration factor. Value of enrichment factor was highest for Mn. It was thus concluded, on the basis of this study, that wastewater-irrigated crops accumulate more metals. Treatment of wastewater prior to application to plants must be commonly practiced to save crops from contamination.

KEYWORDS:

• wheat
• contamination
• heavy metal
• different treatments of contaminated water
• different pollution indices

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all the supporters of this project and the referees for their constructive comments.

Funding

The financial support for this research was granted from The Higher Education Commission, Pakistan through a research project #2484/13 to the first and second authors.