Rural population health risks caused by nitrate contamination of locally grown vegetables

Abstract

Objectives to assess the levels of health risks in the rural population associated with the consumption of local vegetables contaminated with nitrates. Material and methods. We established the concentration of nitrates in local vegetables, grown on farms and private subsidiary plots of agricultural areas of the region using a retrospective analysis of the statistics from the Office of Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-being (Rospotrebnadzor) in the Saratov region and our own research results. The health risks in the rural population from exposure to nitrates in local vegetables were assessed according to the Risk Assessment Guidelines (R 2.1.10. 1920-04). Results. It was revealed that local vegetable products are widely used in the diet of the rural population of the agricultural areas of the Saratov region, amounting to 203.422.5 kg/year per adult resident. Significant differences were revealed in the nitrate contamination of vegetables grown by farmers and on private subsidiary plots of agricultural areas of the Saratov region. Discussion. The high nitrate load detected in vegetable products of farms was determined by a significant amount of fertilizers applied to the soil in the form of ammonium nitrate. On the contrary, the use of special biomass from plants of the legume family by workers of personal subsidiary farms for feeding the growing vegetables, made it possible to obtain vegetable products with a significantly lower quantitative content of nitrates. Conclusion. The assessment of the hazard coefficients of nitrates in vegetable products of the studied areas testified to the possible effect of the nitrate component on the health of the local population. The individual carcinogenic risk caused by nitrate contamination of local vegetables was assessed as low; the population carcinogenic risk value associated with the presence of nitrates in vegetables had the possibility to contribute from 0.01 to 1.3 additional cases of malignant neoplasms to the general level of oncological morbidity in the population of the surveyed territories.