Environmental Factors on The Heavy Metal Content of Raw Milk

This investigation was conducted to determine the contents of some heavy metals in raw milk samples collected from four different regions, an industrial region, a rural, a heavy trafficintensity region and an agricultural region around Isparta, a province of Turkey. A total of 86 raw milk samples were collected from these different regions, and the contents of lead (Pb),cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), tin (Sn), mercury (Hg) weredetermined. The average amounts in the samples from these four regions were for Pb 0.062 0.021 0.077 0.035 mg/kg; for Cd 0.007 0.00 0.0053 0.00 mg/kg; for Cu 0.44 1.13 0.46 0.95mg/kg; for Fe 6.02 1.98 3.48 4.59 mg/kg Zn 4.98 2.20 4.04 4.76 while no As, Sn, Hg wasdetected in the samples. The highest heavy metal content was found in the milk samples collected from industrial region followed by agricultural region, traffic intensive region andrural region. According to the statistical analysis, the differences between the regions were statistically significant (p < 0.05).

Keywords:

Contamination , heavy metals , milk