Dietary exposure of secondary school students in Hong Kong to polybrominated diphenyl ethers from foods of animal origin

This paper reports levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in a wide range of foods of animal origin and estimates their dietary exposure for secondary school students in Hong Kong, China. Dietary exposure to PBDEs was estimated using local food consumption data obtained from secondary school students in 2000 and the concentrations of PBDEs in food samples taken from local market in 2008. The PBDE levels on a fresh weight basis for fish ranged from 13 to 6600 pg g(-1), for seafood and seafood products ranged from 15 to 1200 pg g(-1), for meat and meat products ranged from 23 to 3500 pg g(-1), for poultry ranged from 68 to 670 pg g(-1), for eggs ranged from 280 to 800 pg g(-1), and for dairy products ranged from 12 to 480 pg g(-1). The dietary exposures of secondary school students for the average and high consumers were estimated to be 2.6 and 6.4 ng kg(-1) body weight day(-1), respectively. According to the Joint FAO/ WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), for the more toxic PBDE congeners, adverse effects would be unlikely to occur in laboratory animals at doses of less than approximately 100 mg kg(-1) body weight day(-1). The resulting margins of exposures (38,000 for average consumers and 16,000 for high consumers) showed that the estimated dietary exposures of secondary school students were far below any adverse effect dose observed in laboratory animals and were therefore of low concern for human health.