ABSTRACT
Trace metals are currently of much environmental concern in human consumption. They are harmful to humans and animals since they tend to bioaccumulate in the food chain (Yoon et al., 2006). As always the increasing anthropogenic activities intensify the emission of various pollutants into the environment and introduce different types of harmful substances into the atmosphere including metals. Their sources could be from fertilizers, polluted air, polluted water, and pesticides. Atmospheric trace metals can reach leaves by dry and wet deposition, resulting in changes in their metal concentrations. Although metals are naturally present in soil, contamination comes from local sources, mostly industry, agriculture, sewage sludge, waste incineration, and road trafŸc (Celik et al., 2005). Since most of the date palm production in the farms nowadays practices sustainable farming inputs, these trace metals enter through external sources other than farm inputs. In the arid environments of the Arabian peninsula, the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is commonly grown over large areas, even where a high level of urban pollution exists (e.g., on road shoulders, in industrial and residential areas). Trace metals tend to build up in ¨ora and most vegetation can accumulate metals so that their metal levels are much higher than those found in the air (Onder and Dursun, 2006).
