Potential human health risk assessment of potentially toxic elements intake via consumption of soft drinks purchased from different Egyptian markets

ABSTRACT

Consumption of soft drinks with high potentially toxic elements concentrations may lead to acute or chronic poisoning. Soft drinks have been shown to contain traces of some potentially toxic elements such as cadmium, lead, mercury arsenic, zinc, etc. which may be due to environmental pollution from the surface and underground water, food and fruits utilised during production, and can be toxic for humans. In this study, Quadrupole Inductively Coupled Mass Spectrometer (Q-ICP-MS) was used in a simple validated method of analysis for direct determination of Al, Sb, As, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Hg, Ni, Sn, and Zn in soft drink samples. Analysis of 130 samples covering 14 different brands of popular soft drinks in Egypt to assess whether the intakes complied with the upper permissible levels for tested metals was performed. The results showed that all analysed samples were free from any detectable amount of Hg, while the mean concentrations, in µg/L, were as follows: 1.48 (Cr), 1.96 (As), 0.77 (Sb), 0.53 (Co), 20.27 (Mn), 108.83 (Fe), 0.52 (Cd), 13.18 (Cu), 8.55 (Ni), 20.00 (Sn), 80.09 (Al), 36.54 (Zn), and 1.05 (Pb). The health risk assessment was evaluated for estimated weekly intake, the hazard quotient, the hazard index and the target cancer risk using the Food and Nutrition Board, FAO/WHO and USEPA recommendations. The weekly intakes of all elements were found to be significantly below the recommended tolerable levels. Also, the hazard quotient, the hazard index and the target cancer values for all elements were found to be lower than acceptable guideline values, which indicated that there was no any non-carcinogenic or carcinogenic effects may occur.

KEYWORDS:

• Human health risk
• potentially toxic elements
• q-ICP-MS
• hazard quotient
• hazard index
• soft drinks

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the use of the facilities, equipment, and resources of the Central Laboratory of Residue Analysis of Pesticides and Heavy Metals in Food during the period of the development of this paper. The authors also would like to thank Prof. Dr Ashraf Mahmoud El Marsafy lab director of Central Laboratory of Residue Analysis of Pesticides and Heavy Metals in Foods.

Disclosure statement

Author Mahmoud M. Ghuniem declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Mona A. Khorshed declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Sherif M. El- Safty declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Eglal R. Souaya declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Mostafa M.H. Khalil declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.