Assessing Human Exposure Risk to Cadmium through Dietary Intake in a W-Mo Mining Area, South China

In order to estimate the present exposure risk of Cadmium dietary intake by inhabitants in a W-Mo mining area, South China, a dietary investigation was conducted with stratified cluster random sampling method. According to the result, a total of 7 food groups, including rice, vegetable, meat, chicken and egg, were sampled from contaminated areas using the total dietary study method. Rice consumption took up 81.5% of food consumption. Cadmium content in 45.8% of 306 rice samples, 11.1% of 252 vegetable samples, and 4.8% of 21 chicken samples exceeded the limit. Risks of cadmium in study area are between 1.0E-06 and 1.0E-03, which is acceptable but need further attention to reduce them. Rice products were the highest contribution, which took up about 80.1%. The results showed that Cadmium intake was much higher around W-Mo ore deposit than that in reference area.