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There have been considerations over the consumption of root tubers like cassava, yam and cocoyam discovered at gold mining websites.
It’s because many imagine the heavy metals have the potential to be dangerous to human well being.
However information from scientists on the Kwame Nkrumah College of Science and Know-how, within the Chemistry Division has allayed such fears.
In a examine printed in 2022 within the Worldwide Journal of Environmental Well being Analysis, root tubers had been discovered to be secure for consumption because the scientists concluded the metals posed much less threat.
The presence of metallic contaminants in agricultural soils and subsequent uptake by meals crops can pose severe human well being dangers.
On this examine, the scientists assessed the degrees of poisonous metals like arsenic, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, and zinc in soils and a few edible root tuber crops from two gold mining and two non-mining communities in Ghana and to consider the potential human well being dangers related to publicity to these metals.
They sought to guage the potential human well being dangers related to publicity to those metals.
The concentrations of the metals in 154 soil and edible root tuber samples had been then analyzed. The scientists discovered the degrees of the metals had been typically increased within the gold mining communities than within the non-mining communities.
The contamination indices indicated low to average contamination of the soil and meals crops. Bioaccessibility for the metals various from 1.7% (Fe) to 62.3 (Mn),” lead scientist. Prof. Godfred Darko mentioned.
They nonetheless concluded the degrees of metals within the root tubers posed low threat to people.
“Total, the dangers posed by the metals upon consumption of the tubers had been low,” he emphasised.
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