Heavy metal depicts any metallic element of an atomic weight above the mass of Ca [10]. Adding to the ingestion or exposure routes of food and water intake, the accumulation of heavy metals in cultivated crops would depend on the plant species and uptake rate [11]. Besides heavy metals as a natural form of food crop adulteration [12], their pathway into the environment would not be limited to the indiscriminate disposal of household wastes, livestock manure, and unused metallic parts [13]. The bioaccumulation of heavy metals, such as copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn), and chromium (Cr), in human tissues results in various levels of toxicity [5,14] causing illnesses like cancers, hypertension, and genetic material alteration [15,16]. When the permissible legal limits are exceeded, the heavy metals like iron (Fe), mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb), and arsenic (As) exert serious health toxic effects [5,14,17]. Moreover, the consumption of vegetables, legumes, and cereals, particularly those contaminated with heavy metals, pose a risk to human health [11]. The fact that heavy metals and pesticide residues find their way through the supply chain and finally into human tissues strengthens the persistence of debate on non-regulated agrochemicals as well as the evaluation of pesticides, particularly as they concern human health and wellbeing [5]. Pesticide residues exposed through ingestion could eventually assume five orders of magnitude over those of the other routes. Human activities do contribute to increase the heavy metals concentration in the environment [18]. The fight to tackle the consumption of foodstuffs contaminated with heavy metals and pesticide residues has to intensify to prevent the resultant health risks arising from their toxicity [11].
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