Overview
Okori and Sam-Uket measured eight metals by ICP-OES in crude palm oil collected monthly for six months from a plantation grown without pesticides and two pesticide-cultivated plantations, and calculated intake and risk indices. Oil from the two pesticide-cultivated plantations had far higher levels of every metal than the control.
Key numbers
- Lead: 0.006 ± 0.001 (control) vs 0.62 ± 0.01 and 0.41 ± 0.08 in the pesticide-cultivated plantations (Table 1, unit printed as mg/l).
- Cadmium: 0.02 ± 0.01 (control) vs 0.39 ± 0.06 and 0.27 ± 0.04 (Table 1).
- Arsenic: 0.007 ± 0.001 (control) vs 0.44 ± 0.06 and 0.31 ± 0.04 (Table 1).
Methods (brief)
Half a gram of oil was emulsified with propan-2-ol and hydrochloric acid and read by ICP-OES against NIST-traceable standards. No detection limits, reference materials or recoveries are reported.
Evidence Fitness
Direct evidence for crude palm oil, with six samples per plantation. Table 1 prints mg/l while the abstract gives the same values as mg/kg, so the unit is uncertain and values are kept as printed. Lead and arsenic near 0.4 to 0.6 are very high for edible oil and there is no quality control. Crude palm oil is a proxy for rice bran oil, non-dairy creamer and Italian dressing, none of which were measured.