Human exposure to silver released from silver-modified activated carbon applied in the new type of jug filter systems.

BACKGROUND A water filtered by jug filter system (JFS) can be applied for the preparation of food products, as well as it can be directly consumed as drinking water. In the European Union, in both above-mentioned cases the quality of water filtered using JFSs has to fulfill the requirements listed in Directive 98/83/EC. However, Directive 98/83/EC sets no parametric value for silver, JFSs are not regulated under this legislative act and additionally, silver-modified activated carbon (applied in such systems) has not been approved by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Therefore, the exposure to this metal should be assessed for all JFSs containing filtration cartridges with silver-modified activated carbon, present on the retail market. OBJECTIVE A comprehensive study was conducted in order to examine the effect ofJFSs (consisted of filtration oval-cartridges of the new type with silver-modified activated carbon) on the quality of filtered water regarding the released amounts of silver. Silver migration from such type of cartridges has not been examined before. The aim of work was the assessment of exposure to silver released into filtered water from silver-modified activated carbon applied in such types of FSs. MATERIAL AND METHODS Silver migration from six brands of JFSs (A-F) was investigated according to British Standard BS 8427:2004 using a validated inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry method. RESULTS . The average daily silver concentrations in the composite samples collected on six measurement days forA, B, C, D, E and F JFSs were in the ranges of: 3.95-18.1 microg/l, 4.6-21.7 microg/l, 0.41-8.7 microLg/l, 6.9-10.9 microg/l, 3.3-17.1 microg/1 and 10.1-20.8 pg/1l, respectively. The established grand mean concentrations of released silver from all six oval cartridges were in the range of 2.7-14.3 jg/1. The estimated Hazard Quotient (HQ) indices were in the range of 0.015-0.082 CONCLUSIONS:. The estimated HQ indices were significantly lower than 1 and therefore no long-term risk for human health could be expected. All the investigated JFSs of the new type meet previously established provisional migration limit for silver from such systems--25 microg/L.