The dietary intake of aluminium, cadmium and lead by 47 children (aged 5-8 years) living in West-Germany (Duisburg) is reported. Duplicate portions of all food and beverages were obtained on 2 days. Aluminium, cadmium and lead were measured by atomic absorption spectrometry under careful quality control. Results are shown in the following table. [table: see text] The dietary intake of aluminium was low. The median amounted to 2.9% and the maximum value to 11.2% of the FAO/WHO PTWI. The correspondent data for cadmium were 30.2 and 98.7% and for lead 22.2% and 72.1% respectively.