Determination of Lead Metal in roadside plants in some of Baghdad's Highways, Iraq

Hathama R. Hasan and Jalal N.

Abstract

The vehicle's fuel considered as the main source of lead contamination. Therefore, determination the concentrations of lead in plants which exist nearby the traffic area has a significant importance in terms of lead content that comes from the exhaust may contaminate the plants which exist on the roadsides. The Lead concentrations in four types of vegetables (Celery, Cress, Leek and Peppermint) in 4 sites at different Baghdad's Highways (Al Dora, Abu ghraib, Al mahmoudia and Al qadisiyah) were determined. All the samples were collected from fields near to the roadside and the concentrations of lead were measured by Flame atomic Absorption spectrophotometry. The results show that the mean values of lead concentrations in these samples ranged from 2.0573 to 3.7106, 2.1991 to 2.6799, 0.2813 to 1.4803, and 0.8850 to 1.7890 mgkg-1for lead in Al Dora, Al qadisiyah, Abu ghraib and Al mahmoudia respectively. In this study, the levels concentration of lead in two locations (Al Dora and Al qadisiyah) were found exceeding the allowable limit of lead metal according to WHO/FAO which recommended that the safe value of lead in vegetables is 2.0mgkg-1[1, 2]. Whereas, within the vegetable types the highest concentration of lead was noticed in the peppermint followed by leek, cress and celery.