Abstract

These experiments were carried out to analyze thecontent of heavy metals in 8 kinds of vegetables grown in XiguIndustrial District in Lanzhou city. The possible health riskassociated with 4 metals in vegetables to local inhabitants viatheir consumption was assessed, based on target hazardquotients (THQ) and pollution indexes. The results showed thatthe measured vegetables do not contain Pb or maybe Pb contentin vegetables is relatively small, it could not be measured in thisexperiment. For Cu elements, the most abundant content was ineggplant with a concentration of 0.067 mg/kg, then the leastcontent was for cauliflower with a concentration of 0.015 mg/kg;for Cd elements, the most abundant content was in celery with aconcentration of 0.067mg / kg, the content in cabbage was theleast with a concentration of 0.023 mg/kg; and then for Znelements, the most abundant content was in spinach with aconcentration of 1.001 mg/kg, the least is pepper with aconcentration of 0.274 mg/kg. Environmental health riskassessment showed that THQ values are less than 1, indicatingthe heavy metal content of most collected vegetables match withthe requirements of safety and quality of agricultural products.