Dietary Risk Assessment of PAHs for the adolescents in Cyprus and the relevant uncertainty

The aim of this risk assessment study was to estimate the dietary polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) intake of the adolescent population in Cyprus, and to calculate the contribution rate of the major food groups (i.e. meat and meat products ) to the dietary PAHs exposure in Cyprus.

SCF concluded that 15 PAHs, namely benz[a]anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[j]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[ghi]perylene, benzo[a]pyrene, chrysene, cyclopenta[cd]pyrene, dibenz[a,h]anthracene, dibenzo[a,e]pyrene, dibenzo[a,h]pyrene, dibenzo[a,i]pyrene, dibenzo[a,l]pyrene, indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene and 5methylchrysene show clear evidence of mutagenicity/genotoxicity in somatic cells in experimental animals in vivo and with the exception of benzo[ghi]perylene have also shown clear carcinogenic effects in various types of bioassays in experimental animals.

The 4 PAH (PAH4): BaP), chrysene, benz[a]anthracene and benzo[b]fluoranthene is suitable indicator of PAH in foods and can be used as marker of the carcinogenicity of the genotoxic and carcinogenic PAHs according to scientific opinion of EFSA ^[2].

Exposure assessment was performed by using the SGL’s risk assessment tool “ImproRisk”. The mean and 95^th percentile dietary intake values, based on mean PAHs concentrations, were 0.0099 and 0,025 μg kg^-1 b.w. per day, respectively.

The estimated levels of dietary exposure to PAHs and the margin of exposure (MOE) indicate no concern for carcinogenicity.

As expected, livestock meat 59,6%, poultry 18,3%, preserved meat 8,8%, sausages 3,1%, contributed the most to overall PAHs exposure and fruiting vegetables 2.9%, vegetable oil 2,5%, leaf vegetables 1.4% and breakfast cereal 0,8% contributed less to overall PAHs exposure.

Finally the uncertainties affecting the above exposure assessment were identified and assessed.