Heavy Metals Contamination of Milk and Dairy Products and Risk of Cancers

Milk and milk products are recognized as functional foods which their uses have a direct and significant effect on health outcomes and their consumption correlate with a reduced risk of numerous cancers. On the other hand, growing environmental pollutant resulted from theincrease of industrial, agricultural and urban emissions caused milk and dairy products contain different amounts of toxic contaminants such as heavy metals which induce risk of cancers. Milk and dairy products become contaminated with heavy metals through water or manufacturing andpackaging processes. Elements such as chromium and nickel release from stainless steel dairy equipment or tin may enter milk through direct contact with soldered cans. Some Heavy metals are not expected to have any direct contact with milk and milk products except in accidentalcases such as cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic. For these elements, the main pathway of contamination is through the ingestion of contaminated feed and water by milk-producing animals. The carcinogenicity of arsenic, chromium, and nickel has been established. Manyprevious studies have proven that long-term, even with low-level, exposure to inorganic arsenic is related to increased risk of the lung, skin, bladder, pancreatic and hematopoietic cancers. Because of milk and dairy products can contribute a large fraction of the intake of trace and toxicelements by the wide consumption in the human diet, especially in early childhood, control of these elements in dairy products is extremely required. So, determination of the residual concentrations of metals in milk products could represent the safety and hygienic status of thetheses products. Moreover could be ‘‘indirect indicator’’ of the degree of environmental pollution of the region of milk is produced. Therefore, monitoring heavy metal contamination and using different technics for reducing of them in these products is an effective way to preventcancers in society.