Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Foods: Human Exposure through the Diet in Catalonia, Spain

Abstract

The dietary intake of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (naphthalene, acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benz[a]anthracene, chrysene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[a]pyrene, dibenz[a,h]anthracene, benzo[g,h,i]perylene, and indeno[1,2,3-c,d]pyrene) by the general population of Catalonia, Spain, was calculated. Concentrations of PAHs in food samples randomly acquired in seven cities of Catalonia from June to August 2000 were measured. Eleven food groups were included in the study. High-performance liquid chromatography was used to analyze PAHs. The dietary intakes of total and carcinogenic PAHs was calculated for five population groups: children, adolescents, male adults, female adults, and seniors. Among the analyzed PAHs, there was a predominance of phenanthrene (16.7 microg/kg) and pyrene (10.7 microg/kg). By food group, the highest levels of total PAHs were detected in cereals (14.5 microg/kg) and in meat and meat products (13.4 microg/kg). The mean estimated dietary intake of the sum of the 16 PAHs was as follows: male adults, 8.4 microg/day; adolescents, 8.2 microg/day; children, 7.4 microg/day; seniors, 6.3 microg/day; female adults, 6.3 microg/day. The calculated daily intake of PAHs would be associated with a 5/106 increase in the risk for the development of cancer in a male adult with a body weight of 70 kg.

Biomonitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure in pregnant women in Trujillo, Peru — Comparison of different fuel types used for cooking

“…Women who used gas alone still had substantially (~5 times; 324 ng/g creatinine; CLs: 218, 482) higher levels compared to the pregnant women in the NHANES study. Other factors such as diet could be important (Falco et al, 2003;Scherer et al, 2000). Pregnant women in this study had higher levels of creatinine adjusted OH-PAHs compared to levels observed in charcoal workers in Brazil (Kato et al, 2004), but are comparable to those observed in non-smoking women in a city in the industrial Ruhr Valley in Germany (Gündel et al, 1996).…”

Smoking during pregnancy is associated with higher dietary intake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and poor diet quality

“…Supplementation with vitamin C or higher levels of plasma vitamin A have been associated with lower levels of BaP-DNA adducts (11,12) . Dietary intake of BaP and total PAH in adults has been estimated in several studies (5,(13)(14)(15)(16)(17) . However, no study has estimated the dietary intake of these compounds among pregnant women.…”

Presença de hidrocarbonetos policíclicos aromáticos em produtos alimentícios e a sua relação com o método de cocção e a natureza do alimento

“…Em indivíduos não fumantes, a dieta é a principal fonte de contaminação por HPA (LODOVICI et al, 1995;PHILLIPS, 1999;FALCÓ et al, 2003), correspondendo a aproximadamente 70% da exposição total (GILBERT, 1994;McGRATH et al, 2007). Estudos sugerem que HPA provenientes da dieta podem estabelecer o processo de carcinogênese em diversos órgãos, como pulmão, trato gastrointestinal e mama (COYLE, 2004;XIA et al, 2010).…”