The concentration and non-carcinogenic risk assessment of aluminium in fruits, soil, and water collected from Iran

ABSTRACT

The current study was conducted to investigate the concentration of bio-available aluminium (Al) in totally 90 samples of five types of fruits (grape, apple, nectarine, plum, and peach), the water used for irrigation and soil around the planets from six different regions of Markazi province in Iran with the aid of An Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Moreover, the health risk assessment due to ingestion of this element through consumption of fruits was estimated. According to findings, the plum and apple had the highest (1,058 ± 31.7 µg/kg) and the lowest (16.4 ± 6.7 µg/kg) levels of Al, respectively, as lower than the tolerable daily intake (1,000 μg/kg/BW/day). Besides, Al concentration in the gathered soil from around fruit trees and irrigation water was reported as 138391.7 μg/kg (132,094.8–142,363.23) and 7,404.8 μg/L (157.7–38,955.28), respectively, which were higher than those recommended by FAO guidelines (5,000 µg/L). Based on the transfer factor, the investigated fruits could not uptake and accumulate high levels of Al from the soil and/or water through their tissue. The non-carcinogenic risk assessment showed that the lowest and the highest target hazard quotient (THQ) and estimated daily intake (EDI) were in 35–44 and 15–24 age groups in male (0.113) and female (0.148) consumers and 35–54 and 15–24 age groups in the urban (0.117) and rural (0.145) area. Since levels of Al in all fruit samples were lower than the tolerable daily intake (TDI) (1000 μg/kg/BW/day) and THQ < 1, the inhabitants consuming these fruits are not threatened with the health risk due to ingestion of Al via consumption of fruits.

KEYWORDS:

• Fruits
• aluminium
• non-carcinogenic risk
• target hazard quotient (THQ)

Acknowledgments

Babak Peykarestan is grateful to the PNU for financial support through the grant for faculty members.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was approved and supported by the Payame Noor University (PNU), Tehran, Iran.