The Concentration of Lead and Cadmium in Some Greenhouse Products and its Effect on Human Health

Regarding the importance of using the healthy vegetables, it is important to control the concentration of heavy metals in order to provide the health of consumers. Therefore, this study was done with the aim of investigating the evaluation of the risk of heavy metals on human health trough consumption of greenhouse products.

Samples included eggplants, tomatoes, greenhouse cucumbers and strawberries, were collected randomly from Jiroft greenhouses and the concentration of lead and cadmium in leaves and fruits of these plants were measured. The amount of EDI was defined for each product according to daily consumption.

The average concentration of lead and cadmium in samples were different. The highest and the lowest amount of cadmium respectively belonged to tomatoes and greenhouse cucumbers. The results showed that levels of lead and cadmium in most of the products were more than the standard range recommended by the institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran and the FAO-WHO.

The results showed that the amount of lead and cadmium exceeded the standard index, However the amount of EDI was less than or equal to PTDI reported by Standards Institute's of Iran. Overall, according to the results of this study, it can be concluded that the consumption of these products has not any negative effects on the consumers' health.