Concentration and Human Health Risk of Heavy Metals on Canned and Bottled Beverages Purchased from Various Stores in Pretoria, South Africa.

Beverages have been shown to contain small amounts of potentially toxic elements, including mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and zinc, among others. Consuming beverages with high levels of toxic components can lead to acute or chronic poisoning. This study analyzed fourteen canned and fourteen bottled beverages purchased from registered shops. Wet digestion method was used to digest the samples and analyzed using Inductively Coupled Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS). The concentrations of heavy metals ranged from Cu: 0.18±0.12 – 18.09±2.53 mg/kg, Cr: 0.19±0.17 – 8.70±0.17 mg/kg, Mn: 0.03±0.01 – 0.79±0. 27 mg/kg, Fe: 2.04±0.33 – 54.58±2.73 mg/kg, As: N.D, Cd: N.D, Zn from 0.039±0.01 – 0.51±0.11 mg/kg and Hg: N.D, in both canned and non-canned beverage in the present study. The bottled samples had significantly higher concentrations of all heavy metals compared to the canned samples (p>0.05). The levels of Cr, Mn, Cu, and Fe exceeded the permissible limit. The estimated daily intake (EDI) through the consumption of the different canned and bottled beverages ranged from 1.39×10-5-1.36×10-3 mg/kg/day for Cr, 7.41×10-7 – 4.30×10-5 mg/kg/day for Mn, 2.72×10-4 - 7.28×10-3 mg/kg/day for Fe, 2.4 ×10-5 - 2.42×10-3 mg/kg/day for Cu and 8.0 ×10-6 - 6.67 ×10-5 mg/kg/day for Zn. The hazard Quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) were less than 1 which indicate that canned and bottled beverages are not at risk of producing a non-carcinogenic harmful effect. It can be concluded that the levels of heavy metals in canned beverages should be monitored to prevent the negative human health impacts.