Health risk assessment of persistent organic pollutants through consumption of chicken meat
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Date
2009
Authors
Abdul Latiff, Zurinah
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Abstract
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are widely dispersed throughout the
environment including food. Due to their accumulative properties and well documented
endocrine disruptive toxicities, there are concerns on health effects on human through
dietary intake. Foods such as fish and chicken have been found to contain significant
levels of POP chemicals.
Four groups of POPs consisting of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs),
organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) and phthalate
esters were analyzed in chicken meat. The concentration levels were determined and
then used to asess the health risk which would arise through daily consumption of
chicken collected from ten sampling locations in Perlis. The estimated daily dietary
intakes in this study were generally lower than the acceptable daily intake (ADI)
recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) and other health governing
organizations, suggesting that chickens are safe to Malaysians through daily intake.
The analytical methods for analyses of these contaminants in chicken involved
soxhlet extraction, sample clean-up using florisil column chromatography and
quantitation using GC-ECD for PCB and OCP compounds while GC-FID for OPP and
phthalate esters. Various parameters were optimized and the analytical procedure was
validated using spiked standard solutions of target analytes. The highest TEQ value was
PCB 126 (3.86) and PCB 169 (1.37) pg/g ww. PCB 77, PCB 126 and PCB 169 were
found to be the major contributor for the high TEQ value of PCB contamination in the
chicken samples. Concentration of OCPs in chicken were found to be lower in the range
of 0.5-2.3 μg/kg ww compared to reported concentration of OCPs in fish from several
studies in Malaysia. Among the important OCPs, DDT were found in the range of 0.49-
3.14 μg/kg ; chlordane in the range 0.22-2.12 μg/kg; HCH including lindane in the
range 0.99-4.19 μg/kg and endosulfan in the range 0.92-3.12 μg/kg. For the OPP
compounds, dichlorvos was dominant in all the chicken samples. Dibutyl phthalate,
butylbenzyl phthalate, diisooctyl phthalate and diethylhexyl phthalate were the
dominant phthalate esters in the chicken samples.
Concentrations of PCB compounds in chicken were comparable to results on
fish. The calculated daily intakes of PCB through consumptions of chicken meat were
generally lower than the upper limit of the ADI (4 pg TEQ/kg bw/day). The estimated
daily intakes for each of the OCPs in chicken were much lower than the acceptable
daily intake (ADI). For OPPs, the estimated daily intake for dichlorvos was slightly
higher than the acceptable daily intake at three locations. The estimated daily intakes for
DEHP, BBP, DOP and DEP in all the chicken samples were much lower than the
minimum risk level (MRL).
Description
Master
Keywords
Chemical science , Health risk , Organic pollutants , Chicken meat