Health Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution (Cadmium, Lead, Arsenic) in Citrus Marketed in Tehran, Iran, 2015

Background & Aims of the Study: Today, the environment pollution with heavy metals has increased. It is important to study various types of pollutions specially those regarding fruits. The effect of pollutions on food safety for human consumption is a global concern.  This study was conducted for health assessment of heavy metals pollution (cadmium, lead, and arsenic) in citrus marketed in Tehran, Iran in 2015. Materials & Methods: After collecting and preparing 2 samples from each citrus species (tangerine, grapefruit, sweet lime, sour orange, orange) with acid digestion method, the citrus pulp and peel were surveyed. Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was used to determine the concentrations of heavy metals with three replications. Moreover, SPSS version 19 was employed to perform statistical analysis. Results: The results showed that the concentration average of Cadmium, Lead and Arsenic in citrus samples of the pulp parts were 19.73, 42.95 and 2.30 mg/kg and in peel parts were 20.09, 42.71 and 2.12 mg/kg, respectively. The average concentrations of heavy metals were higher than WHO maximum permissible limits. Conclusions: Based on these results, consumption of citrus species has no adverse effect on the consumers’ health (except Sweet lime, Orange, Tangerine and Grapefruit in lead is risky for adults and Sweet lime and Orange that Health Index in Lead and Arsenic and Sour Orange, Tangerine and Grapefruit that Health Index in Lead is more than 1 and is risky for children). Thus, individuals living in Tehran should be cautious about using these citrus fruits and researchers should try to obtain national standards in the field of entering these metals to food in environmental conditions that are in Iran.