Probabilistic Risk Analysis to Assess Dietary Exposure to Aluminum in the Taiwanese Population

Shu-Han You, Szu-Chieh Chen, Chin-Hsin Lin and Yen-Chu Chen
Additional contact information
Shu-Han You: Institute of Food Safety and Risk Management, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung City 20224, Taiwan
Szu-Chieh Chen: Department of Public Health, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan
Chin-Hsin Lin: Department of Public Health, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan
Yen-Chu Chen: Department of Public Health, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: Aluminum (Al) exposure at human dietary levels raises health concerns, yet little is known about the Al exposure from the Taiwanese diet. The amount of aluminum (Al)-containing food consumption in the Taiwanese total diet is increasing, which contributes to the total diet consumption., which raises the health concerns. In this study, we aim to assess estimated weekly intake (EWI) and the percentage of provisional tolerable weekly intake (%PTWI) of the dietary exposure to Al in different age-sex groups. We also applied probabilistic risk analyses to quantify the parameters’ uncertainty by focusing on the distribution function for the Al concentration in food, consumption rate, and body weight in specific age groups. Results indicated that the EWIs declined with increasing age after 6-years old (7–12 > 13–15 > 16–18 > 19–64 > 65+). Results indicated that the EWIs gradually declined after 6-year of age. The EWIs of Al-rich food in cake + waffle, kelp, snacks, and bread contributed 20%, 17%, 17%, and 11%, respectively, to the total EWIs, corresponding with the much higher consumption rates for these four foods. The 75th percentile of EWIs for the children aged 34–6 years had a %PTWI valued at over 100%, indicating a potential risk of Al intake via dietary exposure. Our findings show that there is a concern about the consumption of Al-rich foods for children in Taiwan.

Keywords: estimated weekly intake; risk assessment; consumption; Taiwan; aluminum (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1099/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1099/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:3:p:1099-:d:487538

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().