Evaluation of possible human exposure to metals in chicken-livers obtained from market in Mafikeng, South Africa

This study evaluates the health risk associated with consumption of chicken livers due to heavy metals. One hundred and thirty five bags of chicken-livers with each bag weighing 0.5 kg were obtained from three shops around Mafikeng local government municipality and were transported to the laboratory for analysis. Three sets of forty five packaging bags each filled with chicken-livers were obtained from shops; SRL3, SPL1 and FVL2 respectively at different periods of the year in 2016. They were analyzed for macro-metals, trace metals, possibly required trace metals and human carcinogens using ICP‐MS. The evaluated concentrations of these metals were then used to calculate the health risk for adults and children. The hazard index (HI) values obtained for all the age groups were above one, making the non‐carcinogenic effects significant. Hence, the exposure may pose serious non‐carcinogenic effect to the population living around Mafikeng metropolis. The average value of the carcinogenic risk due to Cr for all the age groups and the three shops was found to be 9.99 × 10−4 implying that 1 person in every 1000 would be affected.