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Soil and plant contamination by potentially toxic and emerging elements and the associated human health risk in some Egyptian environments

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Abstract

The aim of this work was to assess the origins, mobility, bioavailability and potential health risks of V, Cr, Co, As, Se, Mo, Cd, Sn and Sb, which are not sufficiently studied in the terrestrial environment of Egypt. This has been carried out by employing a combination of chemical fractionation, plants uptake, mathematical modeling and risk assessment approaches on a wide range of soils and plants sampled from industrial, urban and agricultural locations across Egypt. The contents of As, Cd, Sn and Sb were elevated in the soils of some urban and industrial locations within Cairo, although their soil geo-accumulation (Igeo) indices remained ≤ 2, indicating only moderate contamination. Selenium showed moderate to heavy contamination levels (Igeo up to 4.7) in all sampling locations, and Sb was highly elevated (Igeo = 7.1; extreme contamination) in one industrial location. Therefore, Se was the most important contributor to the pollution load followed by Sb and Cd. Both principle component analysis (of total content) and geochemical fractionation (by sequential extraction) suggested that V, Cr and Co are mostly of geogenic origin, while Se and Sb contents appear to be highly influenced by anthropogenic inputs. The most mobile and bioavailable element was Cd with a large non-residual fraction in all soils (76% of total Cd). The bio-concentration factors of Cd in leafy and fruiting plants were 50 times larger than other elements (except Mo) indicating preferential systematic plant uptake of Cd. Risk assessment models showed an overall low noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic risks to the population of Egypt due to the studied elements with only a few anomalies.

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Funding

The Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research funded Waleed Hares Shetaya’s postdoctoral fellowship in the University of Nottingham. Sampling campaign and shipment of soils and plants were arranged and funded by Arish University. The laboratory work was performed in the UK and the cost was covered by the University of Nottingham own resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Air Pollution Research Department, Environmental Research Division, National Research Centre, 33 El-Bohouth St., Dokki, 12622, Giza, Egypt

    Waleed H. Shetaya & Elham F. Mohamed

  2. Division of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, Leicestershire, LE12 5RD, UK

    Elizabeth H. Bailey & Scott D. Young

  3. Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Vasileios Antoniadis

  4. School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Institute of Foundation Engineering, Water- and Waste Management, Laboratory of Soil- and Groundwater-Management, University of Wuppertal, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285, Wuppertal, Germany

    Jörg Rinklebe & Sabry M. Shaheen

  5. Department of Environment, Energy and Geoinformatics, Sejong University, Seoul, 05006, Republic of Korea

    Jörg Rinklebe

  6. International Research Centre of Nanotechnology for Himalayan Sustainability (IRCNHS), Shoolini University, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, 173212, India

    Jörg Rinklebe

  7. Faculty of Meteorology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture, Department of Arid Land Agriculture, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia

    Sabry M. Shaheen

  8. Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Soil and Water Sciences, University of Kafrelsheikh, Kafr El-Sheikh, 33 516, Egypt

    Sabry M. Shaheen

  9. Division of Soil and Water Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Agricultural Sciences, Arish University, North Sinai, 45516, Egypt

    Ezzat R. Marzouk

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  1. Waleed H. Shetaya
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  7. Sabry M. Shaheen
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  8. Ezzat R. Marzouk
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Contributions

 Waleed H. Shetaya was responsible for the research conceptualization, fellowship grant application, laboratory work & analysis and writing the manuscript’s original draft. Ezzat R. Marzouk provided further funds for soil and plants sampling and shipment. Elizabeth H. Bailey and Scott D. Young hosted, supervised and provided the necessary financial, logistical and administrative resources for the laboratory work & analysis. Investigation and data curation related to samples collection and pre-treatment were conducted by Waleed H. Shetaya, Elham F. Mohamed and Ezzat R. Marzouk. Decision on the appropriate methodology was made by Waleed H. Shetaya, Elizabeth H. Bailey, Scott D. Young and Ezzat R. Marzouk. Vasileios Antoniadis, Jörg Rinklebe and Sabry M. Shaheen validated the hypothesis, methodology and outcome of this work. All authors contributed to the formal and data analysis, and to the writing, reviewing and editing of the final manuscript’s version.

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Correspondence to Waleed H. Shetaya, Sabry M. Shaheen or Ezzat R. Marzouk.

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Most of this articles research data have been included in Appendix A (Supplementary Materials). Any more required research data will be happily provided upon request.

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Supplementary Information

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Supplementary file(Appendix A) (DOCX 1415 kb)

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Shetaya, W.H., Bailey, E.H., Young, S.D. et al. Soil and plant contamination by potentially toxic and emerging elements and the associated human health risk in some Egyptian environments. Environ Geochem Health 45, 359–379 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01097-5

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