Nowadays, using sewage wastewater in the irrigated agriculture causes hazardous
environment impacts. Assessment of these negative effects is vital issue
to prevent heavy metals to be introduced in the food chain. Field and laboratory
studies were conducted at Ellwan, Mangabad and El-Madabegh villages, Assiut
Governorate, in order to evaluate heavy metals concentrations in the edible parts
of carrot, turnip and onion plantswhich were irrigated with sewage water (SW).
The obtained results indicated that, the soils of the studied villages were contaminated
by heavy metals. The concentrations of Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd and Ni concentrations
in the edible portion of thesevegetables plants ranged between 45-70, 13-
19, 3.8-6.2, 2.85-3.85 and 2-6 mgkg–1, respectively. The obtained results showed
that the concentrations of Pb, Cd and Ni in the edible plants were higher than the
permissible limit levels but those of Zn and Cu were within the safe limit levels.
It is worthy to mention that the irrigated edible vegetable crops especially onion,
turnip and carrot with SW should be avoided. This study highlights the potential
hazard for human health due to uptake of high concentrations of heavy metals
especially Ni, Cd and Pb by the studied vegetable crops.