Ion chromatographic determination of perchlorate in foods consumed in Hatay region

Recently, the exposure to perchlorate was emphasised as an important risk factor for human and especially newborn health. A number of studies were focused on this matter. In this study, samples of soil, vegetable (cabbage, spinach, lettuce, carrot, tomato, red cabbage), fruit (orange, mandarin, lemon, grapefruit), water, milk and fish were taken from 8 different regions of Hatay (Samandağ, Kırıkhan, Reyhanlı, Amik Plain, Dörtyol, Yayladağı, Altınözü, Erzin). An ion chromatography system (Shimadzu C196-E039A model) was used to determine the concentrations of perchlorate in the samples. 2.5 mM Phthalic acid and 2.4 mM tris (hydroxymethyl)aminomethane solutions (pH = 4) were used as the mobile phase. A flow rate of 1.5 ml min−1 and oven temperature of 40 °C were used during the analysis. The foods had perchlorate concentrations in the range of 0.236–1.218 μg kg−1. The perchlorate concentration varied from 0.30 ± 0.01 to 0.94 ± 0.02 μg l−1 in milk samples. Perchlorate concentrations were determined to be lower in the drinking waters (0.44 ± 0.03 μg l−1) compared to irrigation waters (0.59 ± 0.03 μg l−1). Perchlorate concentrations of the fish samples were ranged from 0.38 ± 0.01 to 0.61 ± 0.01 μg kg−1.