RETRACTED: Total and hexavalent chromium and other potentially toxic element contamination of useful plant leaves in a polluted mining-smelting region of South Africa and health risks

Abstract

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal).Please note that this retraction notice was updated in November 2022, as follows: to provide details of the corrected and updated version of the article that has been published.This article has been retracted at the request of the Corresponding Author, Sutapa Adhikari, who regrets to inform us that two wrong pieces of information were used: (1) The oral Reference Dose used for aluminium and mercury in this study (2) The Hazard Quotient and Hazard Index of elements were calculated based on WHO recommended daily dietary intake amounts of fruit and vegetables, rather than the average daily vegetable intake quantity for South African population which is significantly lower. Consequently, the calculated risk outcome was magnified considerably, leading to erroneous conclusions.The Corresponding Author takes full responsibility for these errors and offers her sincere apologies.The corrected and updated version of this article is available here:Sutapa Adhikari, João Marcelo-Silva, Johan Paul Beukes, Pieter Gideon van Zyl, Yolindi Coetsee, Ricart Barend Boneschans, Stefan John Siebert, Contamination of useful plant leaves with chromium and other potentially toxic elements and associated health risks in a polluted mining-smelting region of South Africa, Environmental Advances, Volume 9, 2022, 100301, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envadv.2022.100301.