Contamination Status of Heavy Metals in Vegetables and Soil in Satkhira, Bangladesh

Vegetables are the principal source of nutrients and play a crucial role to maintain sound health. but, vegetables are being vitiated by various types of unwanted contaminants and becoming an alarming issue nowadays. intake of contaminated vegetables may cause several diseases and hamper normal physiological functions. therefore, the main purpose of this study is to establish a database about the contamination status of heavy metals in popular vegetables and their growing soil in satkhira, bangladesh; to assess the associated health risks of consumers through target health quotient (thq) and target cancer risk (tcr) analyses. the average concentration of mn, fe, cu, zn, cd and pb is 33.91, 356.71, 10.27, 33.59, 0.57 and 9.76 mg kg^-1 in vegetables and 239.34, 3399.38, 22.48, 65.63, 0.68, 11.53 mg kg^-1 in growing soil. the concentration of heavy metals has been compared with the standard value recommended by who/fao and it is found that the average concentrations of fe, pb, and cd in the leafy, fruit and root vegetables exceeded the permissible limit. moreover, the value of thq, non-carcinogenic parameter, is greater than 1.0 for fe and pb in leafy, fruits and root vegetables. therefore, the thq of fe and pb may pose a potential health risk to human. besides, the probability of developing cancer is greater than usepa risk limit (>10^-6) and the tcr of pb shows high cancer risk whereas cd poses a very high cancer risk. therefore, the consumption of these vegetables is a matter of concern and regular monitoring is strongly recommended.