DIETARY-INTAKE OF CADMIUM AND LEAD AMONG THE GENERAL-POPULATION IN KOREA

This survey was conducted in Seoul, Pusan, Chunan, and Haman in Korea to clarify cadmium and lead burden in the general Korean populations i n terms of dietary intake of cadmium and lead and the concentrations o f the two metals in blood. People who participated in the study were 1 41 healthy nonsmoking women aged 21-56 years. Determination of cadmium and lead in 24-hr food duplicates and blood samples was carried out b y graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The geometric means for the four sites in combination were 21.2 mu g/day for dietary cadmium, 20.5 mu g/day for dietary lead, 1.27 ng/ml for blood cadmium , and 44.3 ng/ml for blood lead. Cadmium intake from boiled rice accou nted for 23% of total daily cadmium intake. The counterpart value for lead intake from boiled rice was 12%. Blood cadmium levels and dietary cadmium intake were lower and blood lead level and dietary lead intak e were higher in Korean women than in Japanese women. The values for d ietary cadmium are similar to, and the values for dietary lead are som ewhat lower than, the levels reported from Europe and the United State s. Dietary intake was the main source of cadmium exposure, whereas lea d exposure was from both ambient air and foods in the Korean populatio n. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.