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International Conference on

Recent Trends in Environmental Sustainability

ESCON22/FWSH/26
Health risk assessment associated with heavy metals’ contamination in buffalo milk
consumed by the inhabitants of Abbottabad City, Pakistan

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Aqsa Rafiq , Arshad Mehmood Abbasi *, Khalid Ahmad , Abdul Nazir , Muhammad Amin ,
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Waheed Ullah
1 Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad
Campus 22060, Pakistan
Correspondence: amabbasi@cuiatd.edu.pk, arshad799@yahoo.com
Abstract
Though, milk is a balanced diet containing a number of substantial quantities of important
nutrients, which are essential for proper growth of an individual, but intake of contaminated
milk containing toxins like HMs may leads to chronic health disorders including various types
of cancers. Present study was focused on HMs contamination in buffalo milk consumed by the
inhabitants of Abbottabad city and associated health risk. Different HMs including Cd, Cr, Ni,
Pb and Zn were quantified in milk samples using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS),
and data were analyzed using correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and
cluster analysis (CA). Health risk was estimated by different indices such as estimated daily
intake (EDI), health risk index (HRI), hazardous quotient (HQ), target hazard quotient (THQ),
health index (HI), and target cancer risk (TCR). Comparatively, Cr concentration was highest
in both shop and home milk samples (101.3±45.33 and 54.11±24.20 mg/L, respectively),
followed by Pb, Zn, Ni and Cd metals. In majority of the cases HMs concentration was
relatively higher than previous reports. Significantly positive associations were noted between
different HMs concentrations in home and shop milk. Likewise, CA and PCA also confirmed
distribution and possible sources of HMs contamination. Though, EDI and HRI values were
exceeding in many cases, THQ, HI and TCR levels exhibit that concentrations of HMs are
within safe limit and impose hazarded effect on consumers’ health. However, in depth
investigation is suggested, specifically focused on constant monitoring of HMs in milk.

Keywords: heavy metals; AAS

Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus

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