Dietary exposure to lead by children and adults in the Jinhu area of China

Abstract

This paper reports an estimate of the dietary intake of lead by children and adults from the Jinhu area in South-eastern China. A duplicate diet approach was used to collect food samples in November and December 2007. The lead content was measured by furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Median lead intakes for different groups were as follows: children: 1.65 µg(kg_bw)⁻¹ day⁻¹; and adults: 1.10 µg(kg_bw)⁻¹ day⁻¹. No exposure exceeded the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of 25 µg(kg_bw)⁻¹ week⁻¹ proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, median and maximum exposure for the children group amounted to 60.8% and 97.2% of the PTWI, respectively, which were higher than those for adults, which were 40.5% and 86.4%, respectively. It was concluded that health risks due to dietary lead intake seem to be high in Jinhu.

Keywords:

• lead
• dietary exposure
• duplicate method
• child
• adult
• provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI)

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 30671763) and the National Science and Technology Support Program (Grant Number 2006BAK02A01). The authors wish to express their thanks to all the survey staff for sampling of duplicate portions. Special thanks are due to Jinhu CDC for assistance in recruiting volunteers, as well as for sample preparation. The Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of Agricultural Products Quality and Security of Jiangsu province is thanked for the analysis of food samples.