Potential human health risk assessment of potentially toxic elements intake via consumption of soft drinks purchased from different Egyptian markets

Consumption of soft drinks with high potentially toxic elements concentrations may lead to acute or chronic poisoning. Soft drinks have been shown to contain traces of some potentially toxic elements such as cadmium, lead, mercury arsenic, zinc, etc. which may be due to environmental pollution from the surface and underground water, food and fruits utilised during production, and can be toxic for humans. In this study, Quadrupole Inductively Coupled Mass Spectrometer (Q-ICP-MS) was used in a simple validated method of analysis for direct determination of Al, Sb, As, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Hg, Ni, Sn, and Zn in soft drink samples. Analysis of 130 samples covering 14 different brands of popular soft drinks in Egypt to assess whether the intakes complied with the upper permissible levels for tested metals was performed. The results showed that all analysed samples were free from any detectable amount of Hg, while the mean concentrations, in mu g/L, were as follows: 1.48 (Cr), 1.96 (As), 0.77 (Sb), 0.53 (Co), 20.27 (Mn), 108.83 (Fe), 0.52 (Cd), 13.18 (Cu), 8.55 (Ni), 20.00 (Sn), 80.09 (Al), 36.54 (Zn), and 1.05 (Pb). The health risk assessment was evaluated for estimated weekly intake, the hazard quotient, the hazard index and the target cancer risk using the Food and Nutrition Board, FAO/WHO and USEPA recommendations. The weekly intakes of all elements were found to be significantly below the recommended tolerable levels. Also, the hazard quotient, the hazard index and the target cancer values for all elements were found to be lower than acceptable guideline values, which indicated that there was no any non-carcinogenic or carcinogenic effects may occur.