Original Article Dietary exposure of the Korean population to arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury Haeng-Shin Lee a , Yang-Hee Cho a , Seon-Oh Park a , Seung-Hee Kye a , Bok-Hee Kim b , Tae-Shik Hahm c , Meehye Kim d , Jong Ok Lee d , Cho-il Kim a,Ã a Korea Health Industry Development Institute, Seoul, Republic of Korea b Chosun University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea c Hanseo University, Seoul, Republic of Korea d Korea Food and Drug Administration, Seoul, Republic of Korea Abstract Due to increasing concern about the intake of contaminants in foods, this study was performed to monitor the exposure of the Korean population to heavy metal contaminants (arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead) from typical diets, and to estimate the health risk. A food list representing typical dietary practices of Koreans was developed, based on the results of the 1998 National Health and Nutrition Survey and the 1999 Seasonal Nutrition Survey, which included a nationwide sample of 4000 and 3000 households, respectively, including everyone 1 year and older. Foods were prepared for consumption (table-ready) according to representative recipes and typical cooking methods, and were chemically analysed to measure the levels of heavy metals by inductively coupled plasma–emission spectrometry (arsenic, cadmium and lead) and gold amalgamation (mercury). Then, the dietary intake of each heavy metal was estimated based on the mean food intake of the population, and the associated risk was evaluated by comparing intakes with the provisional tolerable weekly intakes (PTWIs). Although seaweeds and fishes were highest in heavy metal content, the contribution of foods to total heavy metal intake was more influenced by the amount of food consumed, so that cooked rice was the most important contributor to mercury intake, and vegetables the most important contributor of lead. Nevertheless, the estimated dietary intakes of arsenic (38.5 mg/ person/day), cadmium (14.3 mg/person/day), lead (24.4 mg/person/day) and mercury (1.61 mg/person/day) from the 116 foods tested were well within the safe limits (under 30% of PTWIs). It appears that there is no imminent health risk due to heavy metals examined in this study for the total diet of the Korean population. Keywords: Foods/dishes; Arsenic; Cadmium; Lead; Mercury; Dietary intake 1. Introduction With a rather dramatic change in dietary patterns because of rapid economic development during the past three decades and the globalization of the food market, more Koreans have concerns about the safety of their diets. In addition to physiological and/or nutritional safety, chemical safety in terms of food contaminants has drawn attention as more media reports appear on heavy metals and pesticides in foods. Excessive ingestion of some contaminants may occur in people who have especially high intakes of certain foods. It is well known that ingestion of contaminants in excessive amounts can have detrimental effects on health (Lowik, 1996). However, there have not been many studies conducted to estimate the content of heavy metals in food and/or the intake by consumers in Korea, while many countries have total diet studies to evaluate the intake of contaminants (Dabeka et al., 1993; Leblance and Malnauret, 2000; Leoni, 1985; Ministry of Health, 2000; Mohri et al., 1999; Sandy, 1999; Urieta et al., 1996). ARTICLE IN PRESS