Endocrine disrupting pesticides in soil and their health risk through ingestion of vegetables grown in Pakistan.

A comprehensive study was conducted to appraise the concentrations of 30 endocrine disrupting pesticides (EDPs) in soil and vegetable samples collected from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The sum of 30 EDPs (Σ30EDPs) ranged from 192 to 2148 μg kg-1 in the collected soils. The selected EDP concentrations exceeded their respective limits in most of the tested soils and showed great variation from site to site. Similarly, high variations in Σ30EDP concentrations were also observed in vegetables with the highest mean concentration in lettuce (28.9 μg kg-1), followed by radish (26.6 μg kg-1), spinach (25.7 μg kg-1), onion (16.2 μg kg-1), turnip (15.6 μg kg-1), and garlic (14.7 μg kg-1). However, EDP levels in all studied vegetables were within FAO/WHO limits. The mean bioconcentration factor values were observed < 1 for all the studied vegetables. The health risk assessment revealed that the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) of Σ30EDPs associated with vegetable ingestion was below the acceptable risk level (1 × 10-6), showing no cancer risk to local inhabitants. However, exposure to endocrine disruptor and probable carcinogen heptachlor epoxide poses a potential non-cancer risk (hazard quotient (HQ > 1)) to children through vegetable consumption. The presence of banned EDPs in soils and vegetables of the study area indicates the stability of these legacy chemicals in the environment from over usage in the past or illegal current application for agricultural purposes. Graphical abstract.