Lead in duplicate diet samples from an academic community.

Lead is a naturally occurring element that with the advent of the industrial era became a serious environmental and public health issue. Leaded gasoline, lead based paints, use of lead in plumbing and water pipes, ceramics with lead-containing glazes and tobacco smoke are potential sources of lead exposure for humans. Despite these multiple sources, food is still considered the most important one for the general non-smoking population. Hence, in the present study, the dietary intake of lead was determined in duplicate diet samples provided by 30 participants working or studying at University of Aveiro, Portugal. Pb was detected in all the analysed samples with values ranging between 0.009 and 0.10mgkg-1 ww which correspond to estimated daily intakes between 0.22 and 3.5μgkg-bw-1 day-1 . Risk estimations disclose that at least 3.3% and 26.7% of the participants might suffer cardiovascular and nephrotoxic effects, respectively.