This study was designed to assess lead content in soil and two vegetable species
collected from several sites in Baghdad. The results showed that Swiss chard had
lead content varied from 0.930 ± 0.23 µg/g to 1.988 ± 0.42 µg/g and these data
were higher than those found in celery which ranged from 0.216 ± 0.08 µg/g to
0.935 ± 0.22 µg/g.
In case of celery plants cultivated in both Al- Autyfia and Al- Qanat sites, lead
content has been found to be affected significantly ( P≥ 0.5) by the distance from
motor road where higher content was found in plants closed to motor verge than
those 15 meter away. For soil lead content, the results showed that lead content was
almost two times greater than those of vegetable plant and again lead concentration
was affected by the distance from the motorway verge in both sites where lead
content varied from 1.512 ± 0.42 µg/g to 2.279 ± 1.04 µg/g and from 2.102 ± 0.82
µg/g to 2.656 ± 0.62 µg/g in Al- Autyfia and Al- Qanat samples respectively.
However, these data in celery plants ranged from 1.389 ± 0.36 µg/g to 1.607 ± 0.88
for Al- Autyfia and from 1.359 ± 0.68 µg/g to 1.582 ± 0.92 µg/g for Al- Qanat
cultivated yard.
Key words: Lead, Motor Road, Cultivated Yards, Celery, and Swiss chard
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