Heavy metal analysis and health risk assessment of heavy metal in selected soft drinks in local market of Malaysia

Soft drink has been deemed as one of the most refreshing beverages in the world. They are widely consumed by all ages of people around Malaysia. Heavy metal pollution of soft drink is caused by man made activities and natural occurrence. Thus, this purpose of study is to analyse the heavy metal residue (Pb,Zn,Cd,Cu) in 5 samples of soft drinks that will purchased from the local supermarket by using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) and health risk assessments are also done to all people in Malaysia to assess the hazard level of soft drinks towards human. The health risk assessment are also evalauated using Hazard Index (HI) and Provisional Daily Intake (PDI) and Provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI).The results indicates the average mean concentration for the soft drinks were arranged in decreasing order Pb>Zn>Cd>Cu, Cu was not included in the health risk assessment as it is not detected. In addition, the estimated weekly intake and was within the range of PTWI, while the average THQ for Pb is 0.4463; Cd is 0.1033 and Zn is 2.32x10-3 respectively. The HI calculated was 0.1023, which is less than 1. The results suggests that intake of the soft drinks posed no carcinogenic danger of the four metals.