Determination of dietary intake of mercury and arsenic in the adult Shiraz population using a Total Diet Study

Abstract

Nowadays, chemical food contaminants are considered among the serious health concerns in various countries. Arsenic and mercury are the most important heavy metals which cause different complications in humans. The present study aimed to determine the dietary intake of mercury and Arsenic using total diet study (TDS) method in the adult population of 20-50 years old in Shiraz. Total of 580 food items were prepared and classified into 129 composite samples. After preparation, the samples were digested. The concentration of mercury and Arsenic were measured using inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The dietary intake of Arsenic and mercury was calculated based on the mean food intake. Fish had the highest concentration of Arsenic, and the snack samples contained the highest concentration of mercury. But it was found that the heavy metal intake is more affected by the quantity of the food consumed. Therefore, the highest contributor to dietary intake of Arsenic was drinking water and fruit, and the highest contributor to dietary intake of Arsenic was related to raw vegetables and dairy products. However, the mean daily intake of mercury and Arsenic was 0.2-8.65 µg/d and 6.5-81.81 µg/d, respectively, which is lower than the provisional tolerable weekly intakes (PTWI). Therefore, there is no health risk due to Mercury and Arsenic investigated in this research for the total diet in adult population in Shiraz.

Keywords

• mercury
• arsenic
• total diet study
• food analysis
• icp