Abstract

Iraq is a developing country with a high population. In Iraq, heavy metal andmetalloid contamination has resulted from both industrialisation and environmentalsources, providing serious health risks to the local population. We conducted one ofthe most comprehensive analyses on the current state of Iraq's heavy metal andmetalloid pollution in this paper, which included water, soil, paddy, and rice. Astudy was carried out to determine the concentration of heavy metals including Lead(Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), Cobalt (Co), Magnesium (Mg),Aluminum (Al), and Copper (Cu) of 39 irrigation water samples, 75 soil samples, 75paddy samples, and 75 rice samples in two Iraqi governorates (Diyala , and Salah al-Din ). Samples were taken from three fields in each province.. Atomic AbsorptionSpectrophotometer was used to determine heavy metals concentrations. Iraqi QualityStandardization (IQS( and World Health Organization (WHO) were considered asthe permissible limits. The results showed that all irrigation water samples wereexceeded the permissible limit for Pb, Cd, Fe, and Mn metals, while all soil sampleswere exceeded for Mn and Mg metals. Paddy and rice samples were exceeded foronly Pb metal permissible limit, which was high, for example, Pb metalconcentrations of rice and paddy ranged from 1.805-4.776 mg/kg, 0.642-3.481mg/kg respectively, while the permissible limit was 0.2 mg/kg. Consequently, ricesamples were deemed unfit for human consumption, with the contamination comingfrom irrigation water. therefore, this paper has suggested that the Irrigation watertreatment should be strongly advised and evaluated.

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The article was added to IASJ on 2023-01-10

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