Farmlands Degradation with Intensive Agricultural Practices and Human
Health Risk Assessment: A Case Study of Province Punjab, Pakistan
Abstract
Farmlands contamination with heavy metals (HMs) can be considered as a
global issue especially in developing countries. The current study
investigates the various pollution indices, potential ecological risk
index (PERI) and human health risk caused by HMs in some selected
regions of Punjab Province, Pakistan. Farmlands soil samples were
collected, acid extracted and analyzed via ICP-MS (Agilent 7500c) for
selected HMs. All the HMs were found within permissible limits set by
worldwide regulatory authorities except Cd which exceeded its limit in
68% agricultural soils of the study area. The CF values for Cd showed
high (CF≥6) degree of contamination to considerable contamination
(3≤CF≤6). The CD values indicated low (CD≤6) contamination to moderate
(6dermal>inhalation. Furthermore, the RI values were
observed higher than 1.0×10–4 for Cd (Lahore and Faisalabad regions)
and Cr (Multan and Faisalabad regions) in children working in farmlands
and likely exposed to high cancer risk. So, minimization of pollutants
must be the top priority of the state to reduce contaminants inputs and
immobilization in soil through environmental protection laws and
regulations