Prediction of cadmium concentration in selected home-produced vegetables

Soil contaminated with cadmium presents a potential hazard for humans, animals and plants. The latter play a major role in the transfer of cadmium to the food chain. The uptake of cadmium and its accumulation by plants is dependent on various soil, plants and environmental factors. In order to identify soil properties with statistically significant influence on cadmium concentration in vegetables and to reduce the collection of data, time and costs, regression models can be applied. The main objective of this research was to develop regression models to predict the concentration of cadmium in 9-vegetable species: zucchini, tomato, cabbage, onion, potato, carrot, red beet, endive and chicory, based on soil properties. Soil samples were collected from 123 home gardens of the Municipality of Celje and 59 of these gardens were also included in vegetable sampling. The concentration of elements (e.g. arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc) in the samples was determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Single (for cabbage, potato, red beet and chicory) and multiple (for tomato, onion, carrot and endive) linear regression models were developed. There was no statistically significant regression model for zucchini. The most significant parameter for the influencing the cadmium concentration in vegetables was the concentration of cadmium in soil. Other important soil properties were the content of organic matter, pH-value and the concentration of manganese. It was concluded that consuming carrots, red beets, endives, onions, potatoes and chicory which are grown in gardens with Cd concentrations (mg kg−1 DW) above 2.4, 3.2, 6.3, 7.9, 8.3 and 10.9, respectively, might represent an important contribution to dietary Cd exposure.