CONCENTRATIONS AND HEALTH RISK OF HEAVY METALS IN TEA SAMPLES MARKETED IN IRAN

Abstract

Summary Tea is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Thus, the chemical components in tea have received great interest because they are related to health. In this study, the concentration of five heavy metals including Al, As, Cu, Hg and Pb were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry on samples collected from Mashhad market. The results showed that the highest (908.30 ± 377.70 µg/g) and the lowest (0.09 ± 0.02 µg/g) amount were related to Al and As, respectively. Generally, metals contents of black tea were found to be higher than those of tea infusions. The percent release of Hg to infusion was 70%, whereas only 2.6% was found for pb. The daily intake of all elements from these tea infusions is within the average daily intake except for Al in some samples. Therefore, it may not produce any health risk for human consumption, if other sources of toxic metals contaminated food are not taken after same time.