Investigation of cadmium content in Iranian rice (Oryza Sativa)

Cadmium is one of the dangerous heavy metals which its presence in\nnature and entrance to humans food chain, causes the serious damage in\nkidneys, lungs, bones, and also anemia and sometimes hypertension. The\nmajor source of cadmium intake is rice for rice eating countries such\nas Iran. Cadmium in rice comes from soil through plant roots. Thus,\nRice may be the best indicator for the environment mentoring of cadmium\nespecially in rice eating countries. The most important sources of soil\npollution to cadmium are industrial sludge sewage discharge for\nincreasing its fertility, applying superphosphate fertilizers and etc.\nAt this investigation surveyed Cd content of tarrom rice. A total of 60\nsamples were collected from four areas of Qaemshahr region in north of\nIran (Mazandaran province). The samples were collected in during\nharvesting of rice in filed. The first step, grains of rice were\ndigested by acid digestion method then were analyzed for cadmium by\natomic absorption spectrometer. The results showed that average\nconcentration of Cd in rice was 0.41±0.17 mg/kg dry wt. Notably\nthe Cd content in the rice samples was found to be upper the FAO/WHO\nGuidelines. We concluded that a substantial exists in Cd contents in\nthe rice of four areas and hence health risk is maximum and this risk\nwill increase to eating other foods such as vegetable, fish and etc and\nalso the situation could worsen in the future. Treatment and\nremediation of polluted soils and environment, decreasing easing of\nfertilizer using could reduce Cd intake by plant and consequently\nhealth risk.