Assessing the health risk of cadmium to the local population through consumption of contaminated vegetables grown in municipal solid waste–amended soil

Pollution caused by municipal solid waste (MSW) is becoming a serious threat to the environment. Composting may be an effective way to speed up the decomposition of biodegradable components in MSW, resulting in compost that can be utilized as an organic fertilizer. The pot experiments were carried out with different soil-MSW mixtures (100:0, 75:25, 50:50, and 25:75; w/w) to determine the impact of MSW on the bioconcentration of Cd in commonly consumed plants of Sargodha. The possible health risks were evaluated by applying pollution indices, such as the pollution load index, bioconcentration factor, enrichment factor, and health risk index. The pollution load index was higher than 1 in 75% MSW-amended soil. However, the concentration of Cd was found to be below the permissible limits in all studied vegetables, with a range of 0.019–0.106 mg/kg. In the study, serum samples from different volunteers living in four sites in Sargodha were also collected and analyzed. For vegetable crops, the health risk index (HRI) was less than one. It is concluded that the concentration of Cd was increased by increasing the fraction of MSW. Although the metal contents in the soil treated with MSW were not high enough to categorize the soil as polluted, these findings show that the reuse of MSW can serve as an alternative to mineral fertilizers. However, the presence of Cd in MSW can have a direct impact on soil fertility and, if biomagnified, on crop production and human health.