Street foods exacerbate effects of the environmental burden of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Nigeria.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a large group of well-known toxicants with carcinogenic potential and other health effects including on the immune system. The high health risks of non-communicable diseases and relevant comorbidities in Africa, particularly in contaminated areas like e-waste and crude oil and gas exploration areas and for high consumers of food commodity groupings which are most critical for PAH exposure, are exacerbated by dietary exposure due to unsafe practices in commonly consumed foods, like those street vended.In February 2016, 20 commonly consumed street foods were purchased directly from vendors at major bus stops in Benin City and Umunede in Nigeria.

Health risk assessment and dietary exposure of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), lead and cadmium from bread consumed in Nigeria.

Objective: A risk assessment and dietary exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), lead and cadmium from bread, a common food consumed in Nigeria.

Material And Methods: Sixty samples of bread were collected from different types of bakeries where the heat is generated by wood (42 samples) or by electricity (18 samples) from twenty bakeries located in Gusau Zamfara (B1- B14) and Port Harcourt Rivers States (B15-B20) in Nigeria. PAHs in bread were determined by gas chromatography.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons In Edible Mushrooms from Niger Delta, Nigeria: Carcinogenic and Non-Carcinogenic Health Risk Assessment.

In the oil-rich Niger Delta, hydrocarbon pollution and oil spillages, gas flaring and sundry anthropogenic activities constitute sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), with food contamination playing a major role in human exposure. In this study we assessed PAH levels in wild and cultivated edible mushroom species consumed by the general population from the oil producing Niger Delta, Nigeria. The concentrations of USEPA-16 PAHs were determined by gas chromatography and carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks were calculated.

Heavy metals hazards from Nigerian spices.

Background: Natural spices are commonly used by the people in Nigeria. They may be easily contaminated with heavy metals when they are dried and then pose a health risk for the consumers.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the levels of heavy metals in some commonly consumed natural spices namely Prosopis Africana, Xylopia aethiopica, Piper gineense, Monodora myristica, Monodora tenuifolia and Capsicum frutescens sold in the local markets of Awka, Anambra state, South East Nigeria to estimate the potential health risk.