More pollutants in urban vegetables than in the supermarket

Vegetables from cities sometimes heavily burdened

07/07/2012

Vegetables grown in the city itself are often heavily polluted. This resulted in a study Institute of Ecology of the TU Berlin. According to the researchers, the strains on urban vegetables are sometimes "significantly higher than for vegetables from the supermarket". Nevertheless, there is no reason to panic. Rather, a holistic view on gardening is important.

Even EU limits exceeded
Many people grow their own fruit and vegetables in their home garden. "Because you know what you have," is the motto of many. After all, potatoes, carrots or apples can be grown without artificial fertilizers and are even better than "organic". Urban gardening is booming not only in Berlin, but also in numerous cities in Germany. However, urban vegetables are often contaminated with heavy metals, as revealed by a recent analysis by researchers at the Institute of Ecology at the Technical University (TU) in Berlin. In the journal Environmental Pollution, the researchers reported that urban vegetables, which were mainly grown near busy roads, were many times contaminated with heavy metals. "Vegetables from inner-city gardens may have accumulated many times more heavy metals than standard supermarket products. In some cases, even EU food limits were exceeded, "reported research director Dr. Ing. Ina Säumel. "Our results were surprisingly clear".

For the study, the scientists took samples of areas around trees, backyards and allotment colonies. The withdrawals were carried out in the summer of 2010 and subsequently examined by laboratory technology. In which districts and streets exactly the analyzes were carried out, the researcher did not inform. Finally, an anonymity had been agreed with the subjects before the sample was prepared. Because impurities are often used by some decision makers as an argument to close entire garden settlements, so that the areas can be used for profitable uses, so the statement of the scientist. "We want to prevent this with the anonymization."

Significantly higher pollutant levels in vegetables
Pollution levels varied greatly among the different types of vegetables, so that "the TU researchers were not able to identify problematic or unproblematic vegetables from the outset." What was more important for the study result was the city location where the vegetables were grown. Tomatoes, chard and carrots were much more contaminated with zinc, lead and copper. The metallic substances nickel and cadmium also showed significantly higher values. Some of these metals can cause health problems if ingested by the diet in high doses.

Holistic view on city vegetable cultivation
However, the researchers do not see reason for panic. Dr. Säumel referred instead to an investigation by researchers from the UK. They had demanded a holistic view of urban vegetable growing. In addition to the aspect of pollutant levels, positive side effects such as active exercise, fresh air, social community experiences or even the enjoyment of gardening should also be included in the risk assessment. All these are also health-promoting points, which are eliminated when buying fruits or vegetables in the conventional supermarket. In addition, environmentalists have recently found numerous pesticides in fruits and vegetables.
Nevertheless, the Berlin city study shows that vegetables were less polluted when it was set further away from busy roads. Also helpful are natural or artificial barriers such as houses, dense vegetation stocks such as hedges between busy streets. City gardeners should therefore protect their vegetables with precautions against pollutants. (Sb)

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