Assessment of risks to human health due to the consumption of food produced in the Rio Doce estuary

• Grant number: 24/08159-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Amanda Duim Ferreira
• Grantee: Heloísa Farineli Corveloni
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/12966-6 - Mariana's Disaster: diagnosis of contamination, remediation strategies, and reuse of iron ore tailings, AP.R
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/05339-3 - Revealing iron speciation in estuarine soils impacted by iron mine tailings using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

Iron mining plays a crucial role in the global economy, however, the - increasingly frequent - catastrophic ruptures of dams containing mining tailings require environmentally safe and economically sustainable solutions from the sector. The deposition of mining waste in natural and agricultural ecosystems raises concerns about the risks to human health, especially in estuarine environments, where the decomposition of organic matter in anoxic and suboxic soils and sediments can lead to the dissolution of iron oxides, the main constituent of waste, and release of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) adsorbed or occluded to iron minerals. This process makes PTEs bioavailable to organisms, with a potential risk of environmental and anthropogenic contamination. The accumulation of PTEs in plants can be a risk to human health when they accumulate in edible parts of cultivated species. Even eight years after the occurrence of the "Disaster in Mariana", the risk to human health due to the consumption of food produced from mining waste deposited in the Rio Doce estuary has not yet been assessed. In view of the above, this proposal aims to quantify the total levels of PTEs in soils, roots, leaves and fruits, of plants cultivated in the Rio Doce estuary for commercial and subsistence purposes. Therefore, the present project will provide an integrated understanding of the effect of EPTs on plants grown in the Rio Doce estuary, as well as assess the risks of consuming these foods through the calculation of non-carcinogenic risks.