Contents of cadmium, mercury and lead in edible mushrooms growing in a historical silver-mining area

Three harmful metals were determined using AAS techniques in 285 samples of fruiting bodies of 15 wild-growing edible mushroom species. The mushrooms were collected from a forest on the fringe of a historical area of silver mining. The metals were also determined in a topsoil organic layer sampled from nine sites within the observed area. As compared to background levels from unpolluted sites from several European countries, cadmium contents were considerably elevated in nearly all the tested species; lead contents were increased in most of the species, while mercury contents were elevated only in certain species. Thus, many species from the observed area may contribute considerably to the body burden of the metals. Agaricus silvaticus accumulated cadmium extremely and Lepista nuda accumulated mercury. There were no obvious simple positive relationships between the contents of the observed metals in fruiting bodies and the contents of total metals in the soil organic layer.