Assessment of Some Heavy Metals in Broken Dark Tea in Alborz Province and Estimation of Consumer Health Risk at 2019

Background & objectives:

Tea is one of the most popular beverages in the world and contains several important essential micro nutrients that are beneficial to human health. The contamination of tea leaves by heavy metals may pose serious problems to human health. The aim of this study was to determine the concentrations of some heavy metals in broken black tea and also evaluation of their health hazards in Alborz province, Iran.

In this study, the concentration of heavy metals of Pb, Cd and Hg were measured by atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) according to AOAC method of analysis on 15 samples of broken black tea available in stores of Alborz province and selected by simple random sampling in 2019. Upper limits of these heavy metals were 1 ppm, 0.1 ppm and 0.02 ppm for Cd, Pb and Hg, respectively.

The results of analysis showed that the mean levels of Pb, Cd and Hg were 0.255±0.06, 0.046±0.069 and 0.014±0.002 ppm, respectively.

 Lead, cadmium and mercury concentrations in the sampled brands of broken black tea were lower in comparison with their upper limits. Therefore, it be concluded that there are not any health problems concerned with broken dark tea consumption for these elements.