Dietary exposure to cadmium and health risk assessment in children - Results of the French infant total diet study.

Besides specific occupational activities or smoking, food is the main route of cadmium exposure for the general population. In France a total diet study previously conducted for adults and children over 3 years old revealed that health concerns due to Cd dietary exposure existed for both adults and children. This study showed that the Cd tolerable weekly intake, based on potential nephrotoxicity effects, is exceeded by a high proportion of children under 3 years old. Nephrotoxicity results from the accumulation of cadmium in the kidney and appears typically after long-term exposure (40-50 years). Despite the exceeding of the tolerable weekly intake observed during the first three years of childhood, due to low body weights compared to adults, the accumulation rate of cadmium is much lower during the whole childhood period (from 0 to 17 years of age) than during adulthood. These data suggest that dietary exposure to cadmium should be reduced for both children and adults to prevent health concerns associated with nephrotoxicity in later life. Moreover, recent literature suggests that Cd can induce other adverse health effects (especially endocrine disruption or neurotoxicity) that could be triggered at even lower doses than those triggering nephrotoxicity.

Levels of lead in foods from the first French total diet study on infants and toddlers.

Infants and toddlers are highly vulnerable to exposure to lead due to its higher absorption in small children than in adults. This study describes the optimisation and validation of a very sensitive method for the determination of low levels of lead in foods mostly consumed by infants and toddlers. This method, based on inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry with a programmable temperature cyclonic spray chamber, attained a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.6 or 0.9µgPbkg-1 for a liquid or a solid sample, that was improved by a factor 5.6-8.3 compared to the previous method (LOQ: 5µgkg-1). The analytical method was then applied to 291 food samples from the first French total diet study on infants and toddlers. Lead was detected in most samples at relatively low concentrations (range 0.0-16µgkg-1). The highest lead concentrations were mainly found in processed food products (e.g. products containing chocolate).

Effects of pan cooking on micropollutants in meat.

This work presents the effects of pan cooking on PCBs, PCDD/Fs, pesticides and trace elements in meat from a risk assessment perspective. Three different realistic cooking intensities were studied. A GC×GC-TOF/MS method was set up for the multiresidue analysis of 189 PCBs, 17 PCDD/Fs and 16 pesticides whereas Cd, As, Pb and Hg were assayed by ICP-MS. In terms of quantity, average PCB losses after cooking were 18±5% for rare, 30±3% for medium, and 48±2% for well-done meat. In contrast, average PCDD/F losses were not significant. For pesticides, no loss occurred for aldrin, lindane, DDE or DDD, whereas losses exceeding 80% were found for dieldrin, sulfotep or phorate. Losses close to the margin of error were observed for trace elements. These results are discussed in light of the physicochemical properties of the micropollutants as well as of water and fat losses into cooking juice.