Table 2.

Variation of heavy metal concentrations among three different types of recycled papers (mg/Kg).

Heavy metal	EPA, 2012 paper-based food packaging regulations	Metal Content Directive 2002/72/EC limited values	Council of Europe specific release limits (SRLs) for food packaging	R1 (Mean ± SEM)	R2 (Mean ± SEM)	R3 (Mean ± SEM)
Cu	25	25	4	0.0095 ± 0.0105b	1.940 ± 0.0195a	0.976 ± 0.018a
Mn	DC	DC	1.8	0.0134 ± 0.0017	0.0156 ± 0.0006	0.0150 ± 0.0013
Zn	50	100	5	0.4573 ± 0.0179	0.4520 ± 0.03	0.4521 ± 0.004
Cr	3.05	1	0.250	0.1963 ± 0.026	0.0264 ± 0.0019	0.1463 ± 0.002
Cd	0.5	1	0.005	0.0185 ± 0.0009	0.0253 ± 0.0003	0.0249 ± 0.0004
Pb	3	2	0.01	0.2618 ± 0.017	0.1974 ± 0.001	0.1255 ± 0.115

Note: N = 5, p < 0.05, one-sample t-test, n.d = non detective.