TY - JOUR ID - TI - Mercury Levels in Soil, Leafy Plants and Irrigation Well Water at Several Agricultural Fields in Baghdad Government, Iraq AU - Shaimaa Salim Abd Ali* AU - Mahmood Basil Mahmood PY - 2019 VL - 60 IS - 9 SP - 1928 EP - 1932 JO - Iraqi Journal of Science المجلة العراقية للعلوم SN - 00672904 23121637 AB - Soil and plant contamination with heavy metals is one of the current problems inthe world especially contamination with mercury. Heavy metals are very harmfulbecause of their long biological half-lives, non-biodegradable nature and theirpossibility to accumulate at different body parts. Soil, well water and leafy plantsamples (Apium graveoleus, Allium ampeloprasum, Lepidium sativum, Eruca sativa,Petroselinum hortense, Ocimum basilicum , Mentha pulegium) from three differentagricultural fields (AL-Musafer village (site 1), AL-Autaifiyah (site 2) and ALHuriyah(site 3)) in Baghdad government, Iraq were analyzed for mercuryconcentration. Hg level in soil samples ranged from 3.67 to 5.33 ppm in ALAutaifiyahand AL-Musafer village, respectively. While, in water samples Hg levelranged from 1.2 in AL-Autaifiyah to 22.8 mg/l in AL-Musafer village. Plantsamples recorded Hg level ranged from 0.009 to 2.88 ppm in AL-Autaifiyah andAL-Huriyah, respectively. The results showed that Hg level in water samples andmost plant samples were above the acceptable limit according to WHO (1993), andFAQ/WHO (1999) respectively. While Hg level in soil samples was within theacceptable limit put by Ministry of the Environment, Finland (2007).

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