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Dietary intake and health risk assessment of nitrate, nitrite, and nitrosamines: a Bayesian analysis and Monte Carlo simulation

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Abstract

Nitrate, nitrite, and nitrosamines intake from the diet creates human health risks. In this study, nitrate/nitrite intake from diet and its association with nitric oxide (NO) level in humans have been surveyed. Besides nitrate/nitrite, nitrosamines risks were also determined from the diet. This study was conducted as a pilot study; 33 heathy adults participated in and completed the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) for 3 days. Then, concentrations of nitrate, nitrite, and nitrosamines were studied by the literature review. Also, the association between the intake of nitrate and nitrite with salivary and urinary NO was evaluated by Bayesian bi-variate analysis. Then, the health risk was assessed for nitrate/nitrite from food groups and drinking water, and nitrosamines from food groups based on hazard index (HI) and cancer risk with the Monte Carlo simulation. The nitrate/nitrite intakes had no association with NO level in the saliva and urine samples. The mean of HI value for the mean of 3 days was 3.57 and 0.32 from food groups and drinking water, respectively. The cancer risk amount of nitrosamines from food groups was (1.74 to 2.22) × 10−3 based on 95% confidence interval (CI 95%) values. This study showed the Iranian diet had a high risk, but drinking water consumption was safe based on nitrate/nitrite and nitrosamines for humans. There is a need to determine the concentration of nitrosamines in drinking water in Iran and to recommend for decrease risk of nitrate, nitrite, and nitrosamines exposure by food groups.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Student Research Committee of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (Grant No. 197159).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Malihe Moazeni, Leila Ghaisari & Afshin Ebrahimi

  2. Student Research Committee, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Malihe Moazeni, Sahar Golipour & Leila Ghaisari

  3. Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Zahra Heidari

  4. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran

    Sahar Golipour

  5. Institute of Research and Development, Duy Tan University, Da Nang, 550000, Vietnam

    Mika Sillanpää

  6. School of Civil Engineering and Surveying, Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, West Street, Toowoomba, 4350, QLD, Australia

    Mika Sillanpää

  7. Faculty of Environment and Chemical Engineering, Duy Tan University, Da Nang, 550000, Vietnam

    Mika Sillanpää

  8. Environment Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-Communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Afshin Ebrahimi

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  1. Malihe Moazeni
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  2. Zahra Heidari
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Correspondence to Afshin Ebrahimi.

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This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IR.MUI.RESEARCH.REC.1397.470).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Responsible editor: Lotfi Aleya

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Moazeni, M., Heidari, Z., Golipour, S. et al. Dietary intake and health risk assessment of nitrate, nitrite, and nitrosamines: a Bayesian analysis and Monte Carlo simulation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 45568–45580 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10494-9

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