3.2. Assessment of health risk
3.2.1. Heavy metal transfer from soils to food crops
Fig. 3 shows the heavy metal transfer from soils to food crops
(bio-accumulation factors, BAF). The trends in the BAF for heavy
metals in different vegetables were in the descending order of
Fe > Zn > Cu > Cr. Highest accumulation of Fe was observed in
lettuce followed by eggplant and carrot (Fig. 3). Except Cu, relatively
low BAF values for other heavy metals were observed in
radish compared to other vegetables. The BAF values of Zn varied
from highest (0.317) in lettuce to lowest (0.061) in radish. The BAF
value for Cu was significantly higher in radish than all other vegetables
except for tomatoes which showed lowest accumulation
values (0.075). The BAF value of Cr was highest in lettuce and
lowest in radish. The present results indicate that the average BAF
values for leafy vegetables were significantly higher as compared to
non-leafy vegetables. Therewas significant difference in BAF values
among all the vegetables because heavy metal uptake by plants