Abstract



The study examined the concentration of heavy metals in water, soil and vegetables growing wildly on cement-polluted soil of Rewa city, India. Accumulation of HMs in vegetables occurs by various sources but soil is considered the major one. In this study, soil to vegetable transfer factor (TF) for various HMs were also calculated and data showed that TF values differed significantly between soil and vegetable, the difference in TF values among different vegetables may be attributed to differences in element uptake by different vegetables. However TF values obtained for all vegetables were below (1) at all sites. TF were computed to quantify relative differences in bioavailability of metals to vegetables to identify the efficiency of a vegetables species to accumulate a HM(s). These factors were based on roots uptake of metals and discount the foliar absorption of atmospheric metal deposits. However TF does not present the risk associated with the metal in any form.