Overview
Adilbekov and colleagues purposively sampled meat, poultry, milk, cottage cheese and freshwater fish from the most technogenically burdened districts of three Kazakh regions between August 2024 and September 2025. Tables 1 to 4 give mean ± SD lead, cadmium, copper and zinc by district and product, and cadmium, lead, arsenic and mercury for fish. Several district means exceed the Customs Union limits, especially for horse meat and lamb in Karaganda.
Key numbers
- Horse meat, Aktogay district (Karaganda): lead 1.94 ± 0.0024 mg/kg; lamb, Bukhar-Zhyrau: lead 1.11 ± 0.046 mg/kg (Table 1, p. 1058).
- Beef, Abai district (Abai region): lead 0.20 ± 0.04, cadmium 0.135 ± 0.035 mg/kg (Table 1).
- Chicken meat, Zerenda district: cadmium 0.21 ± 0.0032 mg/kg (Table 2, p. 1059).
- Whole milk, Abai district: lead 0.272 ± 0.179 mg/kg (Table 3, p. 1060).
- Freshwater fish: lead 0.0014 to 0.075 mg/kg; mercury up to 0.22 ± 0.0021 mg/kg (crucian carp, Shortandy) (Table 4, p. 1061).
Methods (brief)
Dry ashing at 450 °C with nitric acid, dissolution in hydrochloric acid and ICP-OES for lead, cadmium, copper and zinc. Solid-sample LODs are 2.0 mg/kg for lead and 0.2 mg/kg for cadmium. No method or LOD is given for the arsenic and mercury values in Table 4, and no certified reference material is reported for metals.
Evidence Fitness
The design deliberately targets polluted districts, so it is site-specific (industrial and mining) evidence, not a national survey. Data quality is weak: almost every lead and cadmium mean lies below the paper’s own solid-sample LOD, several SDs exceed their means, the basis is not stated and text and tables disagree in places. Use the values as indicative only.