Cross-sectional assessment of infants’ exposure to toxic metals through breast milk in a prospective cohort study of mining communities in Ghana

Table 4 Amounts of toxic metals intake by infants through human breast milk

Descriptive parameters	Heavy metals intake by infants, (μg/Kg bw/day)
Descriptive parameters	As	Pb	Hg	Cd
Geometric mean	2.901	1.363	0.940	0.129
SD	2.223	1.960	1.116	0.117
95% CL (low)	2.388	0.910	0.682	0.102
95% CL (high)	3.415	1.816	1.197	0.156
Median	3.19	1.17	0.94	0.13
Minimum	1.05	0.42	0.22	0.06
Maximum	7.05	10.56	5.23	0.42
WHO PTDI	2.1^a	3.57–5.0^a	0.57–0.8	0.8–1.0
% above WHO DPI	46.36	4.35	33.33	0.00

^awithdrawn PTWI at the 2011 JECFA. Average weight of the 3 months old infants who participated in this study was 6.37 (95% CI of 6.17–6.57) Kg. Evaluations of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) 2011. http://apps.who.int/food-additives-contaminants-jecfa-database/chemical.aspx?chemID=4197

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