Toxicological assessment of inorganic arsenic and zinc content in button mushrooms

Nowadays, discharge of toxic heavy metals into the environment is an increasing global concern. In light of this and that the per capita consumption of mushrooms has increased in Iran, the current study was carried out to investigate the levels and health-risk assessment of elements arsenic (As) and zinc (Zn) through consumption of button mushrooms marketed in Kermanshah city in 2016. In this descriptive study, a total of 30 samples from 10 brands of edible mushrooms were collected from the market basket of Kermanshah city. After preparation and processing of the samples in the laboratory, the contents of the studied elements were determined using ICP-OES. Also, all statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS version 19 statistical package. Based on the results, the contents (mg/kg) of arsenic and zinc with an average of 65.23±13.57 and with an average of 66.23±2.80 respectively were higher than the maximum permissible limit (MPL). Also, the results showed that all the computed values of health risk index (HRI) of both elements in adults, but only Zn in children, were within safe limits (HRI<1). On the other hand, the HRI values of children with an average of 1.47 were more than the safe limit and led to a potential health risk under the current mushrooms consumption per capita for this age group. Therefore, serious attention to the discharge of chemicals into the environment and monitoring of the residue levels of pollutants, especially toxic heavy metals and pesticides in the foodstuffs, is recommended.