Mohammad Nejatolahi¹, Farzad Mehrjo^2,, Ali Sheykhi¹, Meghdad Bineshpor³

In February 2012, 96 cow milk samples were collected from different cities of Fars province and investigated using atomic absorption spectroscopy. The mean recovery of the analytical method at 10, 20, and 40 ng/ml was 85 ± 5%. Additionally, the mean level of lead content obtained from 96 samples was 10.26 ng/ml, with a range from 1.3 to 23.2 ng/ml, and a standard deviation of 4.31. Moreover, the lead concentration in 5% of the milk samples was higher than the newly established Codex standard. It is worthwhile to mention that significantly higher Pb levels were witnessed in animals aged older than 3 years (p < 0.01). In future studies, a greater number of milk samples added to grass samples from different animals in various regions of Fars should be analyzed to confirm the absence of heavy metals and toxicological risks.

heavy metals, lead, milk, fars province, atomic absorption spectroscopy