Long-term dietary exposure to lead of the population of Jiangsu Province, China

Abstract

Deterministic and probabilistic estimates of the chronic exposure to lead (Pb) for the inhabitants in Jiangsu Province, China, were performed. Pb contamination data were obtained from the national food contamination monitoring programme during 2001–2006 and 2600 samples from 38 commodities in Jiangsu were included. Food consumption data were from the national diet and nutrition survey conducted in 2002, including 3879 subjects aged 2–80 years and 185 children aged 2–6 years in Jiangsu. Contributions from 38 commodities were included in the calculations. Using the provisional tolerable weekly intakes (PTWI) divided into daily intakes (PTWI_d) of 3.57 µg kg⁻¹ bw day⁻¹ in the risk assessment, exposures calculated by the deterministic approach for children and the general population were 77% and 43% of the PTWI_d, respectively, which were nearly similar to the mean intake calculation in the probabilistic approach. The percentage of people whose exposure level exceeded the PTWI_d for children, the general population, urban population and rural population were 16%, 0.4%, 0.1%, and 0.5%, respectively. The 50th, 95th and 99th percentiles of Pb exposure for children were 2.6, 4.4 and 5.5 µg kg⁻¹ bw day⁻¹, respectively. Rice followed by wheat flour and bean products contributed most to the total Pb intake for both children and the general population. This study indicated that the Pb dietary exposure in Jiangsu Province, especially for children, would be a public health concern.

Keywords:

• dietary exposure
• risk assessment
• lead
• probabilistic estimation
• deterministic approach
• PTWI

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) of Jiangsu Province for providing the consumption and contamination data. We also thank Dr. Bas G. H. Bokkers in the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment of Netherland (RIVM) for his support and advice during the research. This research was carried out under the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 30671763) and the National Science and Technology Support Program (Grant Number 2006BAK02A01).