Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals for Population via Consumption of Vegetables Collected from Khassa River, Kirkuk City, Northern Iraq

Abstract

The heavy metals pollution is one of the problems that arise due to the increased uses of fertilizers and other chemicals to meet the higher demands of food production for human consumption. Health risk assessment for heavy metals of the population is a very good technique because such assessment would be useful to give information about any threat regarding heavy metals contamination in vegetables. For health risk assessment different methods are used by different researchers. In this review paper different methods, for assessment of the heavy metals concentration in the human body contributed by contaminated vegetables, are discussed. These methods include the daily intake of metals (DIM), daily dietary index (DDI), provisional tolerable daily intake (PTDI), along with the methods used for the health risk assessment. The health risk assessment methods include hazard quotient (HQ) and health risk index (HRI).