Long-term exposure to Cd through contaminated food can lead to multiple adverse health effects on humans. Although previous studies have covered global food Cd concentrations and dietary Cd exposures across different populations, there are increasing concerns regarding the adequacy of current food Cd safety standards to protect populations from adverse health effects. Moreover, incorporation of Cd relative bioavailability (Cd-RBA) in foods improves the accuracy of health risk assessment. However, factors influencing food Cd-RBA have not been systematically discussed, thereby hindering its application in risk assessment. This review aims to provide an overview of Cd contents in foods, discuss concerns regarding international food Cd concentration standards, explore factors influencing food Cd bioavailability, and highlight the opportunities and challenges in refining differences between dietary Cd intakes and body burdens. Our findings suggest that current safety standards may be insufficient to protect human health, as they primarily focus on kidney damage as the protective endpoint and fail to account for global and regional variations in food consumption patterns and temporal changes in dietary habits over time. Factors such as crop cultivars and food compositions greatly influence food Cd-RBA. To improve the accuracy of Cd health risk assessment, future studies should incorporate food Cd-RBA, sociodemographic characteristics, nutritional status, and incidental Cd exposure. This review highlights new insights into food Cd safety standards and Cd bioavailability, identifies critical knowledge gaps, and offers recommendations for refining health risk assessments. This information is essential to inform future bioavailability investigations, health risk assessment, and safety standard development.

As an environmental endocrine disruptor, atrazine (ATR) can produce serious health damage to humans. This study aimed to assess the exposure and health risks associated with ATR among Chinese adults by analyzing data on ATR concentrations in various environmental media across China. Literatures were retrieved from 5 databases and finally identified 65 eligible studies. The concentrations of ATR in environmental media ranged from 0 to 0.12 mg/kg. The average daily doses (ADD) of ATR for Chinese males and females were estimated at 2.58 x 10-5 mg/kg/d and 2.53 x 10-5 mg/kg/d, respectively. The ADD values did not exceed the reference dose -0.035 mg/kg/d. Sensitivity analysis revealed that body weight and ATR concentrations in various food items such as vegetables, grains, and fruits, along with factors like drinking water intake rate, were the primary influencing factors. Furthermore, the hazard index (HI) values were less than 1 and over 0.32% of cancer risk (CR) values were higher than 10-4, indicating that exposure to ATR could pose a potential risk. The HI and CR values did not exhibit statistically significant differences across genders or among various age groups. This study illustrated that exposed to ATR can pose potential risk to Chinese adults health and dietary intake (including drinking water, and food) was the major pathway by which most humans are exposed to ATR.

Perchlorate and chlorate are ubiquitous pollutants that can adversely affect the thyroid function in humans. This study assessed the potential health risks associated with the dietary exposure of infants and young children to perchlorate and chlorate present in infant formulas available in Shanghai. The assessment was based on risk monitoring data from 150 samples of infant formulas in Shanghai between 2020 and 2022, along with the dietary consumption data of infants and young children. The detection rates of perchlorate and chlorate in infant formulas were 46.0% and 98.7%, with mean contents of 9.98 mu g/kg and 112.01 mu g/kg, and the maximum values of 151.00 mu g/kg and 1475.00 mu g/kg, respectively. The mean and 95th percentile (P95) values of daily perchlorate exposure of 0-36-month-old infant and young children via infant formulas were 0.07 and 0.17 mu g/kg body weight (bw) per day, respectively, which were lower than the tolerable daily intake (TDI) of perchlorate (0.3 mu g/kg bw per day). The mean and P95 values of chlorate exposure via infant formulas in 0-36-month-old infants and young children were 0.83 and 1.89 mu g/kg bw per day, which were lower than the TDI of chlorate (3 mu g/kg bw per day). The P95 exposure of different age groups (0-6 months, 7-12 months and 13-36 months) of infants and young children to perchlorate and chlorate in infant formulas was below the TDI. Therefore, the risk associated with the exposure of 0-36-month-old infants and young children to perchlorate and chlorate from infant formulas in Shanghai is considered acceptable. Prioritizing environmental pollution control efforts to reduce the levels of perchlorate and chlorate in food products is important to safeguard the health of the infants and children under the One Health concept.