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Human and animal health risk assessment of metal contamination in soil and plants from Ait Ammar abandoned iron mine, Morocco

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Abstract

The goal of this paper is to investigate metal pollution in food chain and assess the resulting health risks to native citizens in Ait Ammar village. The results showed that cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and copper (Cu) concentrations in animal organs were above the metal concentration safety limit. Nevertheless, soils and plants from mining area were contaminated with iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), zinc (Zn), and Cr, Cu, Zn respectively. Cd concentrations in almost animal organs were higher than the acceptable daily upper limit, suggesting human consumption of this livestock meat and offal may pose a health risk. The estimated intake of Pb and Cd for Ait Ammar population could be a cause of concern because it exceeded the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) proposed by Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) in this area. Thus, conducting regular periodic studies to assess the dietary intake of mentioned elements are recommended.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Program Science for Peace (Ref. SfP.983311). The authors would like to thank Professor S. Hammada (Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, University of Sultan Moulay Slimane) for aid in plants identification.

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  1. Laboratory of Management and Valorization of Natural Resources, Faculty of Science and Techniques, University of Sultan Moulay Slimane, P.O. 523, Beni-Mella, 23000, Morocco

    Mohamed Nouri & Abdelmajid Haddioui

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  1. Mohamed Nouri
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  2. Abdelmajid Haddioui
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Correspondence to Mohamed Nouri.

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Nouri, M., Haddioui, A. Human and animal health risk assessment of metal contamination in soil and plants from Ait Ammar abandoned iron mine, Morocco. Environ Monit Assess 188, 6 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-015-5012-6

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