Abstract
This investigation was aimed at determining the concentration levels of five toxic heavy metals (lead, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, and mercury) in dried Porphyra and Laminaria samples from coastal city of China. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used for determination of lead, cadmium and total arsenic. Atomic fluorescence spectrometry was used for mercury, and liquid chromatography coupled with ICP-MS was used for arsenic speciation. The mean concentrations of lead, cadmium, chromium, total arsenic, and mercury were 0.96 ± 0.03 mg/kg, 2.62 ± 0.07 mg/kg, 1.64 ± 0.08 mg/kg, 36.67 ± 0.53 mg/kg, and 7.56 ± 0.42 μg/kg for Porphyra samples and 0.61 ± 0.03 mg/kg, 0.48 ± 0.02 mg/kg, 3.78 ± 0.56 mg/kg, 43.85 ± 1.42 mg/kg, and 46.61 ± 2.02 μg/kg for Laminaria samples. The results were comparable with previous similar research. The potential health risk assessment was conducted by comparing the calculated weekly intakes of toxic metals from Porphyra and Laminaria with provisional tolerable weekly intake. Consumption of these seaweeds does not seem to pose a risk for the consumers’ health regarding their content of heavy metals. However, the potential health risk of cadmium should not be overlooked for consumers with high intake of Porphyra.
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Funding
This work was financially supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 41401367) as well as Key Laboratory of Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Risk Assessment, Guangdong Province(2019) (No. 2019B121203009).
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Yan Chen contributed to sample determination and manuscript preparation, Yong-tao Liu contributed to the sample collection and data analysis, Fu-hua Wang contributed to the study design, Dian Wen contributed to the statistic analysis, Hui Yang contributed to the literature search, and Xiao-li Zhao contributed to the language editing.
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Chen, Y., Liu, Yt., Wang, Fh. et al. An Investigation of Toxic Metal Levels (Pb, Cd, Cr, As, Hg) in Dried Porphyra and Laminaria Collected from Coastal Cities, China. Biol Trace Elem Res 199, 3987–3997 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-020-02509-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-020-02509-w