article · The Science of The Total Environment
Contamination of water and food systems by persistent organic pollutants poses serious environmental and public health concerns. An investigation in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, surveyed 740 market gardeners and tested irrigation water and 144 samples of the leafy vegetable Amaranthus viridis across various gardening sites. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons showed the highest concentrations in the vegetables across all sites, while total polychlorinated biphenyls ranged from 15.89 to 401.36 nanograms per gram. Specific organochlorine pesticides, primarily chlorpyrifos-ethyl and p,p'-DDE, were prevalent in both water and crops, whereas the flame retardant congener BDE47 appeared only in vegetable tissue. Although elevated estimated daily intake suggests potential health risks from consuming these vegetables, calculated cancer risk indicators showed no immediate carcinogenic threat to local populations. These findings underline the need for targeted chemical control programmes in urban agriculture.
Urban agriculture provides vital food supplies in expanding cities, but pollutants in water and soil can transfer directly into consumed leafy greens. By identifying which persistent toxic chemicals accumulate in local crops and quantifying consumer exposure, this research supplies essential evidence for public health officials and urban planners working to establish safe chemical use and monitoring practices in city farming.
The abstract does not indicate an immediate commercial application pathway. The findings primarily serve public health authorities, environmental regulators, and municipal agricultural bodies seeking evidence to design urban chemical monitoring frameworks and food safety guidelines. As an observational environmental risk assessment, the work remains at an early diagnostic stage and does not describe or evaluate commercial technologies or proprietary products.
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The contamination of water resource and food chain by persistent organic pollutants (POPs) constitutes a major environmental and human health concern worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of POPs in irrigation water, soil and in Amaranthus viridis (A. viridis) from different gardening sites in Kinshasa to evaluate the potential environmental and human health risks. A survey study for the use of pesticides and fertilizers was carried out with 740 market gardeners. The levels of POPs (including organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)) were analyzed in irrigation water and 144 vegetable samples collected from different gardening sites. The assessment of potential human health risk was estimated by calculating daily intake and toxic equivalency to quantify the carcinogenicity. The results show highest PAH levels in A. viridis from all studied sites. The concentrations of the sum of seven PCBs (Σ7PCB<sub>S</sub>) congeners in analyzed plants ranged between 15.89 and 401.36 ng g<sup>-1</sup>. The distributions of OCPs in both water and A. viridis were congener specific, chlorpyrifos-ethyl and p,p'-DDE were predominantly detected. Among PBDEs, only BDE47 was quantified with noticeable concentration in A. viridis, while no PBDEs were detected in irrigation water. Higher estimated daily intake values indicate that consuming leafy vegetables might associate with increased human health risks. However, calculated incremental lifetime cancer risk values indicates no potential carcinogenic risk for the local population. The results of this study provide important information on A. viridis contamination by POPs and strongly recommend implementing the appropriate measures to control the use of chemicals used in studied gardening areas. Thus in Kinshasa, urban agriculture control programs for POPs and fertilizers is very important in order to protect the public health through direct and dietary exposure pathways.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142175
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