Concentrations of mercury, cadmium, lead and copper in fruiting bodies of edible mushrooms in an emission area of a copper smelter and a mercury smelter.

Four metals were determined by AAS techniques in 56 samples of 23 wild mushroom species collected in a heavily polluted area in eastern Slovakia in 1997 and 1998. The area has been contaminated from historical polymetallic ores mining and smelting and by emissions from a mercury smelter between 1969 and 1993 and from a copper smelter since 1951. No significant differences in metal concentrations (P < 0.05) were found in four species when comparing the periods 1992-1993 and 1997-1998. Considerable contamination of most species was observed mainly for mercury and cadmium. The highest levels of mercury, up to 50 mg kg-1 dry matter, were found in Boletus reticulatus, Lycoperdon perlatum and Marasmius oreades, and of cadmium up to 20 mg kg-1 dry matter in Xerocomus chrysenteron and Lycoperdon perlatum. The latter species also had extremely high lead and copper concentrations in hundreds of milligrams per kilogram dry matter. Concentrations of mercury and copper in caps of four Boletaceae species were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than those in stipes.