RETRACTED ARTICLE: Evaluation of toxicity potential of cobalt in wheat irrigated with wastewater: health risk implications for public

• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-11815-8
• Publication Date: 2021-01-06T23:03:06Z
• Authors: Fu Chen; Zafar Iqbal Khan; Asma Zafar; Jing Ma; Muhammad Nadeem; Kafeel Ahmad; Shehzadi Mahpara; Kinza Wajid; Humayun Bashir; Mudasra Munir; Ifra Saleem Malik; Asma Ashfaq; Ilker Ugulu; Yunus Dogan; Yongjun Yang
• Keywords: 2. Zero hunger; 0106 biological sciences; Agricultural Irrigation; Cobalt; Wastewater; 01 natural sciences; 6. Clean water; 3. Good health; Soil; Metals, Heavy; Soil Pollutants; Pakistan; Triticum; Environmental Monitoring

The use of wastewater in irrigation weakens the beneficial properties of the soil and leads to a threat to food safety standards. The present research was designed to explore the cobalt toxicity associated with the ingestion of wastewater irrigated wheat. Wheat plants of five different varieties were collected from 7 different sites of Punjab, Pakistan, which were irrigated with three different sources of water. The sampling was done in two cropping years. The cobalt values in water, soil and wheat samples (root, shoot, grain) ranged from 0.46 to 1.24 mg/l, 0.15 to 1.20, 0.29 to 1.30, 0.08 to 0.76 and 0.12 to 0.57 mg/kg, respectively. All the water samples showed high cobalt concentration than the maximum permissible value. However, all the soil and wheat plant samples were found within the maximum allowable range. The high cobalt concentration in irrigating water showed that the continuous usage of such type of water may lead to cobalt toxicity in living organisms with the passage of time and may results in severe health risks.