Daily Intake of Boron through Food and Drinking Water for People Living in Different Environments / 环境与健康杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess boron intake through food and drinking water for the people living in the boron industrial area.Methods Workers from boron mining and processing plants were selected as the exposure group,the other workers from the area where was near to the boron industrial area were selected as the community control group and peoples from the area where was far from boron industrial area were selected as the background control group,all the subjects were healthy adult men,Jul.2003-Sep.2004.Total 24 h food and drinking water of the subjects were collected,the boron concentrations and daily boron intake were analyzed.Results Boron concentrations of drinking water for the workers from boron mining area,community control group and background control group were 2.05,0.86 and 0.05 mg/L respectively;the food boron concentrations of the three groups were 9.46,6.19 and 3.29 mg/kg(DW)respectively;and daily boron intake through food and water were 8.00,4.25 and 1.40 mg/d respectively.The workers drinking the water from the staff canteen well and having dinner in this canteen had 95.5-469 mg/d boron exposure through food and water with average of 219.0 mg/L which was much higher than that of the other people and even closed to the LOAEL(lowest observed adverse effect level)of animals.Conclusion The risk of boron exposure for workers from boron mining and processing area is much higher than that of the other people.