Evaluación del riesgo toxicológico del arsénico en la harina de trigo comercializada en la ciudad de Cuenca

Abstract

Wheat flour is a food of great consumption in the population of Cuenca and Ecuador, which is not a wheat producing country. For this reason to satisfy the requeriments of the population, it is forced to import said cereal. The producing countries, in turn, to compensate for this demand, need to seek an improvement in their production through the use of chemical compounds such as fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, among others; this would have a negative effect since wheat flour could be affected by the presence of heavy metals such as arsenic. The present study proposed to evaluate the toxicological risk of arsenic in the wheat flour commercialized in the city of Cuenca. A survey was conducted (n=385) to obtain data such as the place of sampling, type and amount of flour consumed. The arsenic concentrations, obtained by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy by Hydride Generation, in all the samples (n=15) were below the limit of detection (0.0002 mg / Kg). Thus, this study presumes that there is no toxicological risk of the population of Cuenca exposed to these levels of arsenic, due to the consumption of wheat flour. Because the doses of exposure to this metal are lower than the Reference Dose (RfD) and the No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL), obtaining values of Hazard Quotient (HQ) lower than unity, and Margin of Exposure (MOE) greater than unity.