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Risk assessment of heavy metal toxicity of soil irrigated with treated wastewater using heat shock proteins stress responses: case of El Hajeb, Sfax, Tunisia

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Abstract

Heavy metal contamination of soil resulting from treated wastewater irrigation can cause serious concerns resulting from consuming contaminated crops. Therefore, it is crucial to assess hazard related to wastewater reuse. In the present investigation, we suggest the use of biomarker approach as a new tool for risk assessment of wastewater reuse in irrigation as an improvement to the conventional detection of physicochemical accumulation in irrigated sites. A field study was conducted at two major sites irrigated with treated wastewater and comparisons were made with a control site. Different soil depths were considered to investigate the extent of heavy metal leaching, the estrogenic activity, and the biomarker response. Results have shown that a longer irrigation period (20 years) caused a slight decrease in soil metal levels when compared to the soil irrigated for 12 years. The highest levels of Cr, Co, Ni, Pb, and Zn were detected at 20 and 40 cm horizons in plots irrigated with wastewater for 12 years. The latter finding could be attributed to chemical leaching to deeper plots for longer irrigation period. Furthermore, the treated wastewater sample showed a high estrogenic activity while none of the soil samples could induce any estrogenic activity. Regarding the stress response, it was observed that the highest stress shown by the HSP47 promoter transfected cells was induced by a longer irrigation period. Finally, the treated wastewater and the irrigated soils exhibited an overexpression of HSP60 in comparison with reference soil following 1 h exposure. In conclusion, in vitro techniques can be efficiently used to assess potential hazard related to wastewater reuse.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by funds from the SATREPS project for Valorization of Bio-resources in Semi-arid and Arid Land for Regional Development and the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Grant No. 21226013). The authors want to thank Dr. Atsushi Kawachi and Mr Slim Mtibaa for assisting in the sampling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alliance for Research on North Africa (ARENA), University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba City, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan

    Fahmi Ben Fredj, Junkyu Han & Hiroko Isoda

  2. National School of Engineering of Sfax, University of Sfax, Route de la Soukra Km 4, PO Box 1173, Sfax City, Sfax, 3038, Tunisia

    Ahmed Wali, Moncef Khadhraoui & Mohamed Ksibi

  3. Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba City, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan

    Junkyu Han & Hiroko Isoda

  4. Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Kita 13, Nishi 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-8628, Japan

    Naoyuki Funamizu

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  1. Fahmi Ben Fredj
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  2. Ahmed Wali
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  3. Moncef Khadhraoui
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  4. Junkyu Han
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  5. Naoyuki Funamizu
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  6. Mohamed Ksibi
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  7. Hiroko Isoda
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mohamed Ksibi or Hiroko Isoda.

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Responsible editor: Zhihong Xu

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Ben Fredj, F., Wali, A., Khadhraoui, M. et al. Risk assessment of heavy metal toxicity of soil irrigated with treated wastewater using heat shock proteins stress responses: case of El Hajeb, Sfax, Tunisia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 4716–4726 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-2411-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-2411-5

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