BACKGROUND EXPOSURE OF GENERAL-POPULATION TO CADMIUM AND LEAD IN TAINAN CITY, TAIWAN

Venous blood samples, 24-h total food duplicate samples, and rice samp les were collected from 52 adult non-smoking women in the city of Tain an, southern Taiwan, in 1994, and analyzed for cadmium (Cd) and lead ( Pb) by wet-digestion followed by graphite furnace atomic absorption sp ectrophotometry. Daily dietary intake was 10 mu g for Cd and 22 mu g f or Pb as geometric means, of which Cd and Pb in rice accounted for 34% and 1.4% of daily Cd and Pb intakes, respectively. The counterpart va lues for blood were 1.11 ng/ml and 44.5 ng/ml for Cd and Pb, respectiv ely. International comparison with recently published data suggests th at the exposure to Cd in Tainan should be among the lowest in the worl d.