Dietary exposure to metals by adults living near a hazardous waste incinerator in Catalonia, Spain: temporal trend

Since 1998, an ambitious surveillance program aimed at assessing the environmental and human health impact of a hazardous waste incinerator (HWI) located in Tarragona County (Catalonia, Spain) is being conducted. In addition to the monitoring of metals in environmental and biological matrices, the content of As, Be, Cd, Cr, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn, Tl and V has also been analyzed in a number of foodstuffs in order to determine the extent of dietary intake as a relevant pathway of human exposure. In 2013, the 4rd campaign of the food surveillance program was performed by determining the levels of trace elements in 600 composite samples belonging to 12 different food groups. The results were used to estimate the dietary intake and were compared with those obtained in the baseline (1998) and previous (2003 and 2006) surveys. The levels of Be and Tl were under their respective limits of detection in all the analyzed samples. In turn, the intakes of As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn, and V for the adult population living in the area under evaluation were estimated as 265, 33.9, 695, 8.5, 2120, 180, 41.7, 40.1, and 24 mu g/day, respectively. These intakes were similar or even lower than those found in our immediately previous survey (2006). The only exceptions were Cr and Hg, which progressively and significantly increased with respect to the baseline (1998) study. However, the current metal intakes are still below the tolerable limits established by several international organizations, with the only exception of Cd. The intake of this element exceeded the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) (3.36 vs. 2.5 mu g/kg b.w./week). The periodical assessment of the dietary intake of metals, and particularly of Cd, Cr and Hg, is essential to assure these elements do not mean additional health risks for the population living in the vicinity of the HWI.