Overview
Shar and colleagues measured cadmium, lead and calcium by flame AAS in 60 milk samples from five dairy species and packed milk in Hyderabad, Sindh. Results are given per litre as range and mean for each milk type. Camel milk had the lowest mean cadmium and a mid-range lead level.
Key numbers
- Camel milk (n = 9): cadmium 1.1-1.8 µg/L, mean 1.3 ± 0.1 µg/L; lead 2.1-4.2 µg/L, mean 3.0 ± 0.2 µg/L (Table 3).
- Packed milk had the highest lead, 6.7 ± 0.2 µg/L (range 5.2-8.1); goat milk lead 4.3 ± 0.2 µg/L (Table 3).
- All-sample means: lead 3.14 µg/L and cadmium 1.9 µg/L (Table 4, abstract).
Methods (brief)
One gram of milk was digested with nitric then perchloric acid, made to 50 mL and read by flame AAS (PerkinElmer AAnalyst 200). Printed LOD is 1.5 µg/L and LOQ 15 µg/L for both cadmium and lead. Accuracy by standard addition was 95-98%, but those results are not shown; no reference material was used.
Evidence Fitness
Small direct sample of camel milk (n = 9) from one city. Every printed cadmium and lead value lies below the stated LOQ of 15 µg/L, and several (including camel cadmium mean 1.3 µg/L and minimum 1.1 µg/L) lie below the LOD of 1.5 µg/L; these values carry integrity flags. The text says cadmium was detected in only 20 of 60 samples, which conflicts with a cadmium range for every group, and calcium values in µg/L are implausibly low for milk. Results are per litre and are not converted to a per-kilogram basis. Treat the numbers as indicative of low levels, not as quantified concentrations.