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<p>Foods can act as an important interface between environmental geochemistry and human health through the accumulation of essential and toxic elements. Walnuts (<i>Juglans regia</i> L.) are widely consumed; however, spatially resolved data on their elemental composition and associated health risks remain limited. In this study, walnut kernels were collected directly from local growers across 19 provinces in Türkiye, representing diverse geological and agricultural settings, and analyzed for eighteen elements using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Elemental concentrations exhibited notable variation among provinces. Potentially toxic elements were detected at concentrations broadly consistent with environmental background levels reported for walnuts cultivated outside industrialized areas. This province-level dataset provides a nationwide baseline for environmental assessment of food chain elemental exposure. Noncarcinogenic risk assessment based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) framework showed that hazard quotient (HQ) values for individual elements were below unity in all provinces. Hazard index (HI) values exceeded 1 in a limited number of locations, reflecting conservative cumulative exposure assumptions rather than elevated concentrations of specific contaminants. Carcinogenic risk estimates were primarily driven by arsenic and are likely conservative due to the use of total arsenic concentrations. Overall, the results do not suggest significant health concern under the conservative exposure assumptions applied in this screening level assessment. The wide geographic coverage allows the dataset to serve as a national environmental baseline and suggests the potential use of walnuts as practical bioindicators for long-term monitoring of environmental elemental variability in agricultural systems.</p>

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Environmental monitoring of province-level elemental accumulation in walnuts (Juglans regia L.) and associated human health risks across Türkiye

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月1日

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  • Serdar Çetinkaya,
  • Ayfer Büşra Benkli,
  • Onur Erdem

摘要

Foods can act as an important interface between environmental geochemistry and human health through the accumulation of essential and toxic elements. Walnuts (Juglans regia L.) are widely consumed; however, spatially resolved data on their elemental composition and associated health risks remain limited. In this study, walnut kernels were collected directly from local growers across 19 provinces in Türkiye, representing diverse geological and agricultural settings, and analyzed for eighteen elements using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Elemental concentrations exhibited notable variation among provinces. Potentially toxic elements were detected at concentrations broadly consistent with environmental background levels reported for walnuts cultivated outside industrialized areas. This province-level dataset provides a nationwide baseline for environmental assessment of food chain elemental exposure. Noncarcinogenic risk assessment based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) framework showed that hazard quotient (HQ) values for individual elements were below unity in all provinces. Hazard index (HI) values exceeded 1 in a limited number of locations, reflecting conservative cumulative exposure assumptions rather than elevated concentrations of specific contaminants. Carcinogenic risk estimates were primarily driven by arsenic and are likely conservative due to the use of total arsenic concentrations. Overall, the results do not suggest significant health concern under the conservative exposure assumptions applied in this screening level assessment. The wide geographic coverage allows the dataset to serve as a national environmental baseline and suggests the potential use of walnuts as practical bioindicators for long-term monitoring of environmental elemental variability in agricultural systems.