carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk assessment induced by pesticide residues in commercially available ready-to-eat raisins of iran based on monte carlo simulation

Abstract: pesticide residues in fruits lead to serious public health and environmental problems. this study was undertaken to analyze 57 pesticides residues in 60 commercially available ready-to-eat packed raisins samples from iran's markets using quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (quechers) approach along with acetonitrile for the extraction, surface adsorbents for clean-up procedure, following with a ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (uhplc-ms/ms) [1]. moreover, the probabilistic health risk assessment includes non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk were estimated by hazard quotient (hq), hazard index (hi) and cancer risk (cr) using the monte carlo simulation (mcs) method [2]. the respective numbers attributed to lod and loq were 0.001–0.03 mg kg-1 and 0.005–0.05 mg kg-1. results showed that 23% of samples were contaminated by at least one pesticide according to national mrls. the rank order of pesticides based on hq was carbendazim > acetamiprid > thiodicarb > iprodione for raisins. the rank order of pesticides based on cr was thiodicarb > iprodion. but total cr was lower than 1e-6 value so consumers were not at considerable carcinogenic risk in these commodity. acetamiprid and carbendazim does not pose a cancer risk to humans. therefore, a dietary exposure assessment for the purpose of assessing cancer risk is unnecessary. the hazard quotient values varied among the samples and was greatly affected by the reference dose of pesticides. the estimated health risk assessment of the compounds in all type of pesticides via monte carlo approach showed that adults and children are not at considerable non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk of the mix exposure to pesticides by raisins and there is no serious adverse health effect for adults and children. the implementation of good agricultural practice in farms, the promotion of knowledge and awareness of pesticide user, application of alternative safe method to control pests such as biotechnology-based, application of rational pesticide use program, continuous monitoring of pesticide in crops and the implementation of strict governmental regulation towards pesticides residues in food are recommended.