Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) in mothers’ milk of kafr el-zayat district, egypt: A case study for the health risk of infants in urban regions

For babies, mother milk is the primary source of nutrition. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are released into the environment by the majority of metropolitan areas. The purpose of this study was to quantify the risks to milk consumers by determining the amounts of 14 PAH congeners in 60 milk samples that were taken from the rural Tanta area and the urban Kafr El-Zayat district of Egypt. Comparing the mean PAH content in Kafr El-Zayat samples to the reference zone’s equivalent value (0.685 µg/g fat), it showed 11.87 µg/g fat. There is no probability risk when the hazard quotient (HQ) for babies linked to milk consumption is smaller than unity. Regarding low, medium, and high exposure percentiles, the estimated daily dosage equivalent to benzo[a]pyrene (Bap) revealed the corresponding values for mutagenicity: 9.77E-03, 8.37E-03, and 5.58E-03, and carcinogenicity: 5.13E-03, 4.40E-03, and 2.94E-03. Predicted hazards greater than unity were imposed by such doses. Because this was a first examination for an ancient industrial zone in Egypt, the important information of this work explains the projected non-safety pattern of the breast milk ingested in the Kafr El-Zayat region.