[The Chinese Total Diet Study in 1992--chemical contaminants (I). Comparison between different areas]

The second Chinese total diet study was carried in 1992-1993. This paper describes the overall design and method of study, and dietary intake of heavy metals and other harmful elements, and pesticides. The average lead and mercury intakes were lower than those in 1990, and the dietary intake of cadmium was higher than that in 1990. The intake of aluminium and fluoride were reported for the first time. The levels of some contaminants in individual areas exceeded the tolerance limit. For example, mercury in North 1 exceeded 95.7% in legumes; fluoride in cereals, except South 2, exceeded 11.9%-95.3%. The intake of HCH was close to that in 1990, and the intake of DDT was lower than that in 1990. Seven out of the fifteen organophosphorus pesticides were detected in this study, although the dietary intakes were low, only accounted for about/or below 1% of ADI.