Journal Article

Dietary cadmium exposure assessment among the Chinese population

Gong, Yunyun, Song, Yan, Mao, Weifeng, Yang, Dajin, Jiang, Dingguo, Sui, Haixia, Wang, Yibana, Yong, Ling, Zhang, Lei

2017

Overview

Cadmium, a toxic heavy metal, is widely present in food. It has been reported that chronic cadmium exposure is associated with kidney disease, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and cancer. The aim of this study was to assess the dietary cadmium exposure and potential health risk in different age-sex groups of the Chinese population (children aged 4-11 years, young people aged 12-17 years and adults aged over 18 years), and in the southern and northern population using a semi-probabilistic method. Cadmium was detected in 228,687 food samples from 32 food categrories by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. The dietary cadmium exposures were estimated by combining the cadmium concentration data with food consumption data derived from the China National Nutrient and Health Survey 2002, and evaluated against the Provisional Tolerable Monthly Intake (PTMI) of 25 μg/kg BW/month established by the Joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives (JECFA). The mean dietary cadmium exposure of the general Chinese population (15.3 μg/kg BW/month) was below the PTMI. The high consumer exposures (95th percentile, P95) for the general population and different sub-groups were higher than the PTMI. The dietary cadmium exposure of the southern population was apparently higher than that of the northern population. Rice was the most important contributor to cadmium exposure for Chinese people, especially those living in the southern areas of China. These findings indicated that the health risk from dietary cadmium exposure of the general Chinese people was low, but the health risk of cadmium exposure of certain sub-groups should be of concern.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adolescent / Adult / Adults / Age / Aged / Atomic absorption spectroscopy / Biology and Life Sciences / Cadmium / Cadmium - analysis / Cadmium content / Cancer / Cardiovascular diseases / Child / Child, Preschool / Children / China / Committees / Diet / Epidemiology / Exposure / Family planning / Female / Food additives / Food consumption / Food Contamination - analysis / Food Contamination - statistics & numerical data / Food safety / Graphite / Health aspects / Health risk assessment / Health risks / Heavy metals / Humans / Kidney diseases / Kidney transplantation / Laboratories / Male / Medicine and Health Sciences / Middle Aged / Nutrient concentrations / Osteoporosis / People and Places / Physical Sciences / Population / Probabilistic methods / Research and Analysis Methods / Rice / Risk factors / Spectral analysis / Spectrometry / Spectrophotometry, Atomic / Studies / Young Adult / Young adults