Human health risk assessment of multiple contaminants due to consumption of animal-based foods available in the markets of Shanghai, China

Abstract

To assess the health risks due to food consumption, the human daily intake and uptake of organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and toxic trace elements (mercury, chromium, cadmium, lead, and arsenic) were estimated based on the animal-based foods collected from markets in Shanghai, China. The estimated daily intake and uptake considering the contaminant bioaccessibility via single food consumption were 9.4-399 and 4.2-282 ng/kg body weight/day for adults, and 10.8-458 and 4.8-323 ng/kg body weight/day for children, respectively. These values were 0.2-104 and 0.05-58.1, and 0.2-119 and 0.06-66.6 ng/kg body weight/day via multiple food consumption for adults and children, respectively. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency risk assessment method, the non-cancer and cancer health risks posed by the contaminants were estimated using the hazard quotient and the lifetime cancer risk method, respectively. The results showed that the combined hazard quotient values for multiple contaminants via single or multiple food consumption were below 1, suggesting that the residents in Shanghai would not experience a significant non-cancer health risk. Among the contaminants investigated, the potential non-cancer risk of methylmercury was highest. However, the combined cancer risk posed by multiple contaminants in most foods exceeded the accepted risk level of 10(-6), and inorganic arsenic was the main contributor. The risks caused by polybrominated diphenyl ethers for cancer and non-cancer effects were negligible. The cancer risk of inorganic arsenic is a matter of concern in animal-based foods from Shanghai markets.

Analysis of Contamination Levels of Cu, Pb, and Zn and Population Health Risk via Consumption of Processed Meat Products

“…The total HRI (THRI) of heavy metals for sausage and ham was calculated according to Equation 3 (22,23): (3) T HRI = HRI (toxicant 1…”

Seafood consumption among Chinese coastal residents and health risk assessment of heavy metals in seafood

“…Concentrations of Cd and As in some samples of sparuslatus, N. coibor, R. philippinarum, and P. tenera were higher than the safety limits of national standards (Table 3). Here, we assumed that methyl mercury (MeHg) and inorganic As (InAs) constituted 62 % of the total Hg and 10 % of the total As, respectively (Liao and Ling 2003;Wang et al 2012;Ahmed et al 2015;Lei et al 2015).…”

“…3a, b), which were calculated based on the CSF value of 1.5 (mg/kg/ day) −1 for InAs. However, a CSF value of 25.6 (mg/kg/day) −1 published in a recent toxicological review of InAs was suggested for calculation (EPA/635/R-10/001, 2010) and has been used in some researches (Yu et al 2014;Lei et al 2015). If this provisional CSF value was used in the calculation, the THQ values increased to 7.28-296 (Fig.…”

“…Accounting for more than 70 % of the five heavy metals, As was the main component contributing to the potential non-carcinogenic risk. Some researchers also found that As was the contaminant causing the highest risk to humans, but they believed that Hg posed the highest noncarcinogenic risk (Yu et al 2014;Lei et al 2015).…”

“…The USEPA has developed human health risk assessment methods for carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic contaminants (USEPA 2000). Human health risk assessments suggest that heavy metals, such as As, Hg, and Pb, in fish or mollusk from South China (Wang et al 2013), Taihu Lake (Yu et al 2014), Beijing markets (Fang et al 2014), and Shanghai markets (Lei et al 2015) all exceeded the safety limit.…”