Zakaria et al. 2024 - Copper and aluminum in camel milk near industrial areas in Egypt
This BMC Veterinary Research study measured Cu and Al in raw camel milk from dromedary she-camels grazing in non-industrial versus industrial areas in South Egypt. Industrial-area milk had much higher mean concentrations: Cu 1.43 +/- 0.71 ppm and Al 27.80 +/- 1.48 ppm, compared with Cu 0.05 +/- 0.04 ppm and Al 0.02 +/- 0.01 ppm in non-industrial-area milk. The source also tests boiling, skimming, and fermentation effects, which are processing context rather than market-benchmark data.
Key numbers
Table 1 reports raw camel milk concentrations in ppm:
| Metal | Group A non-industrial min-max | Group A mean +/- SD | Group B industrial min-max | Group B mean +/- SD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cu | 0.02-0.09 | 0.05 +/- 0.04 | 0.04-4.38 | 1.43 +/- 0.71 |
| Al | ND-0.04 | 0.02 +/- 0.01 | 2.95-72.49 | 27.80 +/- 1.48 |
Table 2 compares to WHO MRLs cited by the authors:
| Metal | MRL | Group A samples over MRL | Group B samples over MRL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cu | 0.1 ppm | 0/15 | 9/15 (60%) |
| Al | 0.05 ppm | 0/15 | 15/15 (100%) |
Processing results include raw industrial milk Cu 1.43 +/- 0.71 ppm and Al 27.80 +/- 1.48 ppm; fermentation changed these to Cu 1.45 +/- 0.68 ppm and Al 28.08 +/- 1.64 ppm with non-significant p-values. Boiling in aluminum pans increased Al from 27.80 +/- 1.48 to 48.08 +/- 1.64 ppm.
Methods (brief)
Milk was collected from privately owned, apparently healthy dromedary she-camels between December 2021 and April 2023. Samples were frozen, digested with nitric acid, adjusted to volume, and analyzed for Cu and Al using a CAP 6500 Duo inductively coupled argon plasma system.
Implications
The source supports industrial-proximity context for camel milk, especially Al and Cu residues in raw milk. It also flags aluminum boiling vessels as a processing-related Al source. Because the sampled geography and grazing conditions are specific, route as Egypt camel-milk occurrence context rather than a general milk benchmark.
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Verification notes
The auto-fetch filename suggests human milk, but the PDF is camel milk. The source reports Al and Cu only; no Pb, Cd, As, or Hg results are available.
Page history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 4039d20 | 2026-06-10 | scope: broaden ingest to the full upstream+downstream literature (marine, atmospheric, attribution, exposure, toxicology) — inclusion is the default |