Dietary exposure to pesticide residues from foods of plant origin and drinks in Lebanon.

Lara Nasreddine,Farouk Jaber,Zeina Kassaify,Maria Rehaime,Roula Rechmany

doi:10.1007/s10661-016-5505-y

Abstract

This study assesses the dietary exposure of Lebanese adults to 47 pesticide residues from both foods of plant origin and drinks. The study was conducted using the Total Diet Study protocol in two different areas of Lebanon: Greater Beirut (urban) and Keserwan (semi-rural). A total of 1860 individual foods were collected, prepared, and cooked prior to analysis. Composite samples of similar foods were analyzed, following the QuEChERS Multiresidue method. Eighteen residues were detected/quantified on at least one composite sample, with 66.7 % of the results being quantifiable and 33.3 % detectable. Quantifiable levels ranged between 10.3 and 208 μg/kg. For the composite samples where residues were detected, 55 % had one residue, while 45 % had 2–4 residues. The most frequently detected/quantified pesticide residues included Chlorpyrifos, Procymidone, Primiphos methyl, Dimethoate, and Dieldrin. The dietary exposure assessment was conducted using the deterministic approach with two scenarios: (1) the lower bound (LB) approach and (2) the upper bound (UB) approach. Using the LB approach, mean estimated daily exposures were far below the acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) for all investigated residues. Using the UB approach, which tends to overestimate exposure, mean estimated daily exposures were below the ADIs for all residues except for Dieldrin (semi-rural: 128.7 % ADI; urban: 100.7 % ADI). Estimates of mean exposure to Diazinon reached 50.3 % of ADI in the urban diet and 61.9 % in the semi-rural diet. Findings of this study identify specific pesticide residues as monitoring priorities for which more comprehensive and sensitive analyses are needed in order to refine exposure assessment.

Highlights

Chronic dietary exposure to unsafe levels of chemicals and nutritional imbalances is known to be associated with a wide array of human health disorders such as organ dysfunction and the promotion of certain types of cancer (GEMS/Food 2005)
Substances detected and their levels in the analyzed composite food samples In this study, the dietary exposure of Lebanese adults to 47 pesticide residues was evaluated based on the consumption of drinks and foods of plant origin
All of the detected/quantified residues are pertaining to pesticides that are mainly used as insecticides, except for procymidone, fluodioxonil, and kresoxim methyl, which are used as fungicides, and malathion, which is used as an insecticide and acaricide

Summary

Introduction

Chronic dietary exposure to unsafe levels of chemicals and nutritional imbalances is known to be associated with a wide array of human health disorders such as organ dysfunction and the promotion of certain types of cancer (GEMS/Food 2005). The diet is considered as the major route of exposure to pesticide residues (Lu et al 2006; Luo and Zhang 2009; Panuwet et al 2009; Cao et al 2011), highlighting the need for rigorous investigations of the consumer’s risk associated with these residues. This is the purpose of risk assessment, which is a scientifically based process that could be subdivided into four steps: (1) hazard identification, (2) hazard characterization, (3) exposure assessment, and (4) risk characterization (Renwick 2002). Identifying this threshold leads to the establishment of the acceptable daily intake (ADI), which is defined as the amount of a specific chemical that can be ingested every day for a whole human

Methods

Results

Conclusion