Image of A Market Basket Survey of Horticultural Fruits for Arsenic and Trace Metal Contamination in Southeast Nigeria and Potential Health Risk Implications

A Market Basket Survey of Horticultural Fruits for Arsenic and Trace Metal Contamination in Southeast Nigeria and Potential Health Risk Implications

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Background. Elevated arsenic and trace metal contamination of the terrestrial food chain represents one of the most significant environmental risk exposures for human populations in developing countries. Metalloid and metal contamination in horticultural crop produce such as fruit is a public health concern in Nigeria. Local fruits are cheap sources of vitamins and minerals for the resident population and pose an important dietary threat of metal(loid) toxicity through consumption. Objectives. Market basket investigation of five locally grown (guava, pineapple, orange, and pawpaw) and imported (apple) fruits was conducted to measure the total concentrations of arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb) present in these fruits from southeastern Nigeria (Awka, Anambra). Methods. Fruits were analyzed for As and the three metals using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Moisture content of fruits was determined and used to transform metal concentrations in dry weight to wet weight and compared to Codex food grade standards and assorted (sub)tropical fruits, edible and inedible peels. Results. The mean ± standard deviation of elemental concentrations in dry weight ranged from 20.0±0.71–96.84±0.00 μg g-1 for As, 0.02±0.02 – 0.89±0.33 μg g-1 for Hg, 0.11±0.01 - 0.18±0.40 μg g-1 for Cu, and

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Publication Information
: Journal of Health & Pollution.,
Number of Pages
-
ISBN
-
Language
English
ISSN
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Subject(s)
As
Cu
Hg
Pb
food safety
dietary toxicity
public health
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Article
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