Health risk assessment of cadmium via dietary intake by adults in China.

BACKGROUND
Cadmium in the human diet constitutes a potential chronic hazard to health. The objective of this study was to make a health risk assessment of dietary cadmium intake by adults in the 31 provinces (excluding Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau) of China.

RESULTS
The cadmium levels in a total of 2629 individual food samples ranged from not detected (below the limit of detection) to 17.32 mg/kg, with the highest concentration being found in an offal sample. The food group 'meat' showed the highest mean level of 0.129 m/kg, while the lowest concentration of 8.0×10-4 mg/kg was measured in the food group 'fruit'. The mean cadmium intakes, hazard quotients and annual excess lifetime cancer risks for national, northern and southern adult populations in China were 3.67 µg/kg body weight (BW)/week, 0.52 and 4.56×10-5 a-1, 2.63 µg/kg BW/week, 0.38 and 3.27×10-5 a-1 and 4.56 µg/kg BW/week, 0.65 and 5.67×10-5 a-1, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The results of risk characterization for the national adult population were lower than safety risk levels of hazard quotient and annual excess lifetime cancer risk (5×10-5 a-1). The mean annual excess lifetime cancer risk for the southern adult population was higher than the safety risk level. Therefore the carcinogenic risk for the southern population is of concern.