Risk assessment of heavy metals in system soil-plant

In rural areas, representing about 97% of the agricultural and horticultural area, the content of heavy metals in harvested products does not create a significant risk to consumers. In urban areas with about 3% of the horticultural area and on agricultural production fields with corresponding history, local contaminations may exceed the precautionary values for soils. For these areas, an estimation of possible risks is advisable and necessary. On the base of investigations of transfer of heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb as well as Zn) via the path soil to plant "bio concentration factors" (BCF) have been determined for various horticultural crops (leaf-vegetable, shoot-vegetable, fruit-vegetable, root-vegetable, kitchen herbs and fruit). By use of these BCFs in combination with human toxicological values of the heavy metals (TDI), guiding values can be derived for tolerable soil contamination with the respective metals. These guiding values allow a simple risk assessment of the respective contaminated soils for cultivation and consumption of crops or crop products.