Overview
This study paired urinary metals in 180 Hoveyzeh cohort participants with ICP-OES measurements of bread from Susangerd bakeries and estimated dietary risk. Table 4 pools all bread types into one summary. Mean arsenic, cadmium, lead and zinc exceeded the limits the authors cite.
Key numbers
- Bread lead: mean 0.781 ± 1.12, range 0.13 to 2.63 mg/kg (Table 4).
- Bread arsenic: mean 1.54 ± 0.64, range 0.64 to 2.27 mg/kg; cadmium mean 0.22 ± 0.09, range 0.02 to 0.29 mg/kg (Table 4).
- Bread chromium is printed with a mean of 0.31 mg/kg above its maximum of 0.148 mg/kg (Table 4).
Methods (brief)
Bread was air-dried, oven-dried at 60 °C, ground, ashed at 450 °C, extracted with 4 M nitric acid and analyzed by ICP-OES. Detection limits are given only for the urine work. No certified reference material or recovery is reported for bread. Values are presumably dry weight.
Evidence Fitness
The bread data are a small, pooled summary with no sample count, and the chromium row is internally inconsistent. Arsenic at about 1.5 mg/kg is unusually high for bread. The cardiovascular findings are an association analysis, not concentration data. For bagels, crackers, pretzels, cinnamon rolls, cornbread, flour tortillas and toaster pastries this is a bread proxy only; none of those foods was measured.