TY - JOUR

T1 - Applicability of western chemical dietary exposure models to the Chinese population

AU - Zhao, Shizhen

AU - Price, Oliver

AU - Liu, Zhengtao

AU - Jones, Kevin C.

AU - Sweetman, Andrew J.

N1 - Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PY - 2015/7

Y1 - 2015/7

N2 - A range of exposure models, which have been developed in Europe and North America, are playing an increasingly important role in priority setting and the risk assessment of chemicals. However, the applicability of these tools, which are based on Western dietary exposure pathways, to estimate chemical exposure to the Chinese population to support the development of a risk-based environment and exposure assessment, is unclear. Three frequently used modelling tools, EUSES, RAIDAR and ACC-HUMANsteady, have been evaluated in terms of human dietary exposure estimation by application to a range of chemicals with different physicochemical properties under both model default and Chinese dietary scenarios. Hence, the modelling approaches were assessed by considering dietary pattern differences only. The predicted dietary exposure pathways were compared under both scenarios using a range of hypothetical and current emerging contaminants. Although the differences across models are greater than those between dietary scenarios, model predictions indicated that dietary preference can have a significant impact on human exposure, with the relatively high consumption of vegetables and cereals resulting in higher exposure via plants-based foodstuffs under Chinese consumption patterns compared to Western diets. The selected models demonstrated a good ability to identify key dietary exposure pathways which can be used for screening purposes and an evaluative risk assessment. However, some model adaptations will be required to cover a number of important Chinese exposure pathways, such as freshwater farmed-fish, grains and pork.

AB - A range of exposure models, which have been developed in Europe and North America, are playing an increasingly important role in priority setting and the risk assessment of chemicals. However, the applicability of these tools, which are based on Western dietary exposure pathways, to estimate chemical exposure to the Chinese population to support the development of a risk-based environment and exposure assessment, is unclear. Three frequently used modelling tools, EUSES, RAIDAR and ACC-HUMANsteady, have been evaluated in terms of human dietary exposure estimation by application to a range of chemicals with different physicochemical properties under both model default and Chinese dietary scenarios. Hence, the modelling approaches were assessed by considering dietary pattern differences only. The predicted dietary exposure pathways were compared under both scenarios using a range of hypothetical and current emerging contaminants. Although the differences across models are greater than those between dietary scenarios, model predictions indicated that dietary preference can have a significant impact on human exposure, with the relatively high consumption of vegetables and cereals resulting in higher exposure via plants-based foodstuffs under Chinese consumption patterns compared to Western diets. The selected models demonstrated a good ability to identify key dietary exposure pathways which can be used for screening purposes and an evaluative risk assessment. However, some model adaptations will be required to cover a number of important Chinese exposure pathways, such as freshwater farmed-fish, grains and pork.

KW - China

KW - Diet, Western

KW - Environmental Exposure

KW - Environmental Pollutants

KW - Humans

KW - Models, Theoretical

KW - Risk Assessment

U2 - 10.1016/j.envres.2015.03.025

DO - 10.1016/j.envres.2015.03.025

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 25863589

VL - 140

SP - 165

EP - 176

JO - Environmental Research

JF - Environmental Research

SN - 0013-9351

ER -