ABSTRACT
Heavy metals are ubiquitous environmental contaminants in industrialized societies (Padmavathiamma et al., 2007). Because heavy metals have been extensively used for centuries in commerce, environmental pollution by lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd) and mercury (Hg) has been recognized as a worldwide public health hazard. Food consumption has been identified as one of the major pathways of human exposure, accounting for >90% compared to other ways of exposure such as inhalation and dermal contact (Loutfy et al., 2006). Therefore it is of great importance to assess risks of heavy metals to human via dietary intake. Several methods have been proposed
to estimate the potential health risks of pollutants. THQ risk estimation method has recently been used by (Rubio et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2005; Storelli et al., 2008) and proved to be valid and useful. This risk assessment method was also applied in this study.
