Health risk assessment of Burmese related to heavy metal contamination in ginger from local markets in Myanmar and Thailand

Heavy metals are naturally present in the soil, but geologic and anthropogenic activities raise their concentrations to harmful levels for both plants and animals. This study aims 1) to determine the concentrations of heavy metals (As, Cu, Ni, Cd, Cr, and Pb) in ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) from the wholesale markets of Bangkok, Thailand, and from Yangon, Myanmar, and 2) to access cancer and noncancer risks of Burmese related to the consumption of heavy metal contaminated ginger. The online questionnaire was used to collect personal information and consumption rate. ICP-MS was used to investigate As, Cu, Ni, Cd, Cr, and Pb contaminations in ginger. Most of the heavy metals in ginger from Bangkok and Yangon were lower than the WHO permissible limits, except for Pb in the ginger of Bangkok, As and Pb in the ginger of Yangon were exceeded. The average consumption rate of ginger in Bangkok was 44.08± 6.54 g/day, and 44.61± 7.91 g/day in Yangon. The health risk assessment results showed the average hazard quotient (HQs) of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Pb were 0.0166, 0.0038, 0.0322, 0.0265, 0.0080, and 0.0211 respectively, the hazard index (HI) was 0.1082, indicating acceptable risks for non-cancer for Thailand. Regarding Yangon, Myanmar, the HQs of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Pb were 0.1228, 0.0003, 0.0724, 0.0196, 0.0078, and 0.0311 respectively, the HI was 0.2552. However, the cancer risk (CR) of As, Cd, and Pb were 0.810×10-6, 0.157 x 10-6, and 0.068 ×10-6 for Bangkok, and were 18.449 ×10-6, 0.038 ×10-6, and 0.309 ×10-6 for Yangon respectively. The total carcinogenic risk (TCR) of As, Cd, and Pb was 1.035×10-6 in Bangkok, and 18.796×10-6 in Yangon. Both were higher than the acceptable level of 1×10-6. In conclusion, the heavy metal concentrations in ginger from Myanmar were higher than in ginger from Thailand, besides, Burmese living in Myanmar have greater lifetime cancer risks related to ginger consumption than Burmese living in Thailand.