# Toxic Metals Migration from Plastic Food Contact Materials in Romania: A Health Risk Assessment
## 3 Results
### Health Risk Analysis
#### 3.2.3 Carcinogenic Risk Analysis  
Carcinogenic risks assess the likelihood of developing cancer due to prolonged exposure to a pollutant or a combination of contaminants [17]. Cancer risk (CR) and total cancer risk (TCR) of Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, and Co were estimated based on the assumption that the detected levels would migrate into the packaged food products of the tested samples. For Ni, the CR parameter ranged from 0 to 2.56 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-4}\), while for Co, from 0 to 3.83 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-4}\) (Table S5). Based on the average values, the cancer risk of the tested metals ranked in the following order: Ni > Co > Pb > Cd > Cr. None of the samples fell into the high-risk interval in the case of Ni, but 36.67% of samples were in the moderate-risk interval, 53.33% in the low-risk interval, and 10% in the very-low-risk interval. Similarly, for Co, none of the samples were in the high-risk interval, 30% were in the moderate-risk interval, 46.67% in the low-risk interval, and 23.33% in the very-low-risk interval. Since Pb, Cd, and Cr were not detected in any sample, their cancer risk was not assessed. Overall, Ni had more samples in the moderate- and low-risk categories compared to Co, while Co had a greater percentage of samples in the very-low-risk interval. This highlights that Ni poses a greater carcinogenic risk than Co after long-term exposure to the tested samples. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Element**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Mean (Min–Max)**} \\ \cline{2-4}  & **Exposure (mg/day)** & **ADD (mg/kg bw/day)** & **HQ** \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Ba} & \(6.36\times 10^{-3}\) & \(1.16\times 10^{-3}\) & \(5.78\times 10^{-4}\) \\  & (0–7.89 \(\times 10^{-2}\)) & (0–1.44 \(\times 10^{-4}\)) & (0–7.17 \(\times 10^{-3}\)) \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Co} & \(1.70\times 10^{-4}\) & \(3.09\times 10^{-6}\) & \(2.21\times 10^{-3}\) \\  & (0–7.80 \(\times 10^{-4}\)) & (0–1.42 \(\times 10^{-5}\)) & (0–1.01 \(\times 10^{-2}\)) \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Cu} & \(1.16\times 10^{-2}\) & \(2.11\times 10^{-4}\) & \(3.02\times 10^{-3}\) \\  & (0–3.19 \(\times 10^{-2}\)) & (0–5.79 \(\times 10^{-4}\)) & (0–8.28 \(\times 10^{-3}\)) \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Zn} & \(5.09\times 10^{-2}\) & \multirow{2}{*}{\(9.26\times 10^{-4}\)} & \multirow{2}{*}{\(3.09\times 10^{-3}\)} \\  & \((1.20\times 10^{-4}\)–3.86 \(\times\) & \multirow{2}{*}{\((2.18\times 10^{-6}\)–7.01 \(\times 10^{-3}\))} & \multirow{2}{*}{\((7.27\times 10^{-6}\)–2.34 \(\times 10^{-2})\)} \\  & \(10^{-1}\)) & & \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Mn} & \(6.82\times 10^{-3}\) & \(1.24\times 10^{-4}\) & \(2.70\times 10^{-3}\) \\  & (0–6.37\(\times 10^{-2}\)) & (0–1.16 \(\times 10^{-3}\)) & (0–2.52 \(\times 10^{-2}\)) \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Ni} & \(5.45\times 10^{-3}\) & \(9.90\times 10^{-5}\) & \(7.62\times 10^{-3}\) \\  & (0–1.56 \(\times 10^{-2}\)) & (0–2.84 \(\times 10^{-4}\)) & (0–2.19 \(\times 10^{-2}\)) \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Li} & \(1.51\times 10^{-4}\) & \(2.75\times 10^{-6}\) & \(1.37\times 10^{-4}\) \\  & (0–7.20 \(\times 10^{-4}\)) & (0–1.31 \(\times 10^{-5}\)) & (0–6.55 \(\times 10^{-4}\)) \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Fe} & \(2.09\times 10^{-1}\) & \(3.80\times 10^{-3}\) & \(5.42\times 10^{-3}\) \\  & (0–4.39) & (0–7.97 \(\times 10^{-2}\)) & (0–1.14 \(\times 10^{-1}\)) \\ \hline Pb & NA & NA & NA \\ \hline Cd & NA & NA & NA \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Sb} & \(2.01\times 10^{-4}\) & \(3.65\times 10^{-6}\) & \(9.12\times 10^{-2}\) \\  & (0–1.50 \(\times 10^{-3}\)) & (0–2.73 \(\times 10^{-5}\)) & (0–6.82 \(\times 10^{-2}\)) \\ \hline \end{tabular} NA—not applicable.  
\end{table} 
Table 7: The obtained values of exposure, average daily dose (ADD), and hazard quotient (HQ) for tested elements. The CR oral values reported by Eid et al. (2024) [17] for adults ranged between 3.0 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-4}\) and 3.0 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-2}\) for Cd, 2.26 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-5}\) and 1.8 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-1}\) for Cr, and 3.16 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-5}\) and 3.0 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-2}\) for Pb.