Overview
Arianejad and colleagues measured mercury, arsenic, nickel and tin by graphite furnace atomic absorption in 32 raw milk samples from industrial and traditional dairy farms around Arak, an industrially polluted city in central Iran. Only ranges are printed in a table; farm-type means are shown in a figure.
Key numbers
- Mercury 7.29 to 14.95 µg/l and arsenic 15.20 to 25.90 µg/l (Table 2).
- Nickel 45.10 to 310.55 µg/l and tin 29.78 to 314.64 µg/l (Table 2).
- Mercury and tin were higher in traditional farms, nickel in industrial farms (P<0.05; Figure 1).
Methods (brief)
Twenty-five grams of milk were dry-ashed at 450 °C, dissolved in nitric acid, extracted and read by graphite furnace atomic absorption. No detection limits, reference materials or recoveries are reported.
Evidence Fitness
Small sample from one industrial region, ranges only, per-litre units, and no analytical quality control reported. The mercury and arsenic levels are high for milk. Raw farm milk with fat level not stated is a proxy for half-and-half, skim milk and semi-skimmed milk, none of which were measured.