Dietary intake and health risk assessment of lead and cadmium via consumption of cow meat for an urban population in Enugu State, Nigeria

• We estimated the intake of Pb and Cd from cow meat consumption.
• Average intake of Pb was much lower than the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI).
• Average intakes of Cd were moderate but still appreciable compared to PTWI.
• Intakes of the two metals were higher for school children.
• The target hazard quotient is less than one for the two metals.

The study assessed the dietary intake of lead and cadmium and health risk from consumption of various parts of cow meat by the urban population of Enugu State, Nigeria. Meat samples (n=150) comprising of muscle, liver, kidney, intestine and tripe were purchased from abattoirs in Nsukka and Enugu. The samples were dried, ground and two gram was digested with 3:2 HNO3:HClO4 v/v. The Cd and Pb concentrations were read with an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The dietary intakes were estimated using a one week food frequency questionnaire administered to 755 subjects. The dietary intake of lead (µg/kg body weight/week) were in the following ranges; men [0.15 (kidney)–0.55(intestine)], non pregnant/non lactating women [0.16 (kidney)–0.62 (liver)], pregnant/lactating women [0.13 (kidney)–0.53 (intestine)], undergraduate students [0.12 (kidney)–0.62 (intestine)] and school children [0.29 (kidney)–1.16 (liver)]; cadmium: men [0.42 (liver)–1.21 (tripe)], non-pregnant/non-lactating women [0.53 (kidney)–1.20 (tripe)], pregnant/lactating women [0.43 (kidney)–0.90 (intestine)], undergraduate students [0.40 (kidney)–1.18 (tripe)] and school children [0.97 (kidney)–1.93 (tripe)]. The total dietary intakes of lead from the various cow meat parts by the groups were much lower than the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) guide line, but for cadmium, the intakes were quite appreciable when compared to the PTWI guideline while the intake for school children was very high, 113% of PTWI for the metal. The target hazard quotients were in the range of 0.05–0.10 for lead and 0.42–0.90 for cadmium. These values are less than one, indicating that the subjects are not exposed to any significant health risk via cow meat consumption.