ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Health Risk Assessment of Al and Heavy Metals
in Milk Products for Different
Age Groups in China
Meijuan Yu1,2, Yonglin Liu3, Varenyam Achal4, Qing-Long Fu3,5, Lanhai Li1,2
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1Collaborative Innovation Center of Sustainable Forestry in Southern China of Jiangsu Province,
Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, P.R. China
2College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, P.R. China
3Jiangxi Institute of Analyzing and Testing, Nanchang, P.R. China
4College of Resources and Environmental Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, P.R. China
5Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, P.R. China
Submission date: 2014-09-01
Final revision date: 2015-05-24
Acceptance date: 2015-07-28
Publication date: 2015-11-27
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2015;24(6):2707-2714
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ABSTRACT
Considering that pollutants can be transferred to the human body through food consumption, food safety
is of great concern to the consumers. In order to evaluate the health risk of heavy metals to consumers by
milk categories and consumer age groups via the ingestion of milk products, the contents of Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu,
Al, Ni, Zn, and Co in fermented, sterilized, and modified milk samples collected from markets in Nanchang,
China, were measured by ICP-MS, and the potential health risk was assessed by the method of target hazard
quotients (THQ) and hazard index (HI). Results of this study showed that the contents of all studied elements,
excluding Zn, were within the food safety limits. The mean daily exposures were estimated to be safe on comparison
with the reference dose. However, total metal THQ (TTHQ) and HI values based on maximum exposure
were larger than one for a baby age 0-3, which indicated that the long-term high consumption of milk
products would result in high health risk for infants. The results also showed that the contribution of fermented
milk to total THQ was larger than other milk products. Therefore, more attention should be paid to control
the dietary intake of milk products by babies age 0-3, and we should monitor the potential risk caused by the
ingestion of fermented milk.