title: Dietary intake of lead by children and adults from Germany measured by the duplicate method.
abstract: The dietary lead intake was studied among children and adults from Germany. Two different age groups of children (A: 1.8, 1.3-3.0 years, B: 3.8, 1.8-5.2 years) and one group of adults (D: 40.9, 24-64 years) were from the highly industrialized Ruhr district and one group of children from the North Sea island Amrum (C: 3.9, 1.5-5.3 years). A total of 229 duplicate food portions were collected from 49 individuals between December 1994 and May 1995. Sampling period for each participant was either 3 (groups B and D) or 7 days (groups A and C). Lead levels in duplicate samples were measured by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. The lead intakes (median, range) for the different groups were as follows: Group A: 0.21 (0.05-1.5) microgram/(kg bw.day), group B: 0.68 (0.06-1.6) microgram/(kg bw.day), group C: 0.29 (0.04-1.6) microgram/(kg bw.day) and group D: 0.26 (0.07-0.83) microgram/(kg bw.day). No value exceeded the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of 25 micrograms/(kg bw.week) proposed by the WHO. The median and maximum of the different groups amounted to 7.2-16% and 16-36% of the PTWI, respectively. It is concluded that health risks due to dietary lead intake seem to be low in Germany.
authors: Department of Hygiene, Social and Environmental Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, D-44801 Bochum, Germany. wilhelm@hygiene.rub.de
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Wilhelm
authors: Jürgen
authors: J
authors: Wittsiepe
authors: Petra
authors: P
authors: Schrey
authors: Christiane
authors: C
authors: Feldmann
authors: Helga
authors: H
authors: Idel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004032:Diet; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007854:Lead / Q000032:analysis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D007854:Lead