ASSESSMENT OF HEALTH RISK ASSOCIATED WITH COMMONLY CONSUMED SNACKS IN BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA.

This study comprehensively assessed the potential health risks associated with heavy metal contamination in commonly consumed snacks within Bayelsa State, Nigeria, a critical public health concern given their widespread consumption. Snack samples including Meat-pie, Buns, Puff-Puff,Hot-dog,andEggrollwerecollected,andtheirmetalconcentrationsforCadmium(Cd), Nickel (Ni), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), and Iron (Fe) were precisely quantified using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (FAAS). These foundational concentration data (Table 4.1)theninformedthecalculationofEstimatedDailyIntake(EDI)(Table4.2),HazardQuotients (HQ), cumulative Hazard Index (HI) (Table 4.3), and specific Risk Indices (RI) (Table 4.4) for a thoroughhealthriskcharacterization.ResultsconsistentlyidentifiedPuff-Puffasthepredominant source of concern, exhibiting exceptionally high metal concentrations (e.g., Ni: 0.363 ppm, Cr: 3.171 ppm, Cu: 8.162 ppm), leading to correspondingly elevated Estimated Daily Intakes across all analyzed metals. Crucially, its individual HQs for all metals were significantly above 1, culminating in an alarming overall Hazard Index of 3804.9, which far exceeds the safe threshold andindicatesaseverepotentialfornon-carcinogenichealtheffects.Thiswasfurthersubstantiated byitshighRiskIndicesforCd(0.053581)andNi(0.947995).Conversely,othersnackslikeMeat-pie,Hot-dog,andEggrollgenerallyshowedlowmetalconcentrations