Aggregated aluminium exposure: risk assessment for the general population

Abstract

Aluminium is one of the most abundant elements in earth's crust and its manifold uses result in an exposure of the population from many sources. Developmental toxicity, effects on the urinary tract and neurotoxicity are known effects of aluminium and its compounds. Here, we assessed the health risks resulting from total consumer exposure towards aluminium and various aluminium compounds, including contributions from foodstuffs, food additives, food contact materials (FCM), and cosmetic products. For the estimation of aluminium contents in foodstuff, data from the German "Pilot-Total-Diet-Study" were used, which was conducted as part of the European TDS-Exposure project. These were combined with consumption data from the German National Consumption Survey II to yield aluminium exposure via food for adults. It was found that the average weekly aluminium exposure resulting from food intake amounts to approx. 50% of the tolerable weekly intake (TWI) of 1 mg/kg body weight (bw)/week, derived by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). For children, data from the French "Infant Total Diet Study" and the "Second French Total Diet Study" were used to estimate aluminium exposure via food. As a result, the TWI can be exhausted or slightly exceeded-particularly for infants who are not exclusively breastfed and young children relying on specially adapted diets (e.g. soy-based, lactose free, hypoallergenic). When taking into account the overall aluminium exposure from foods, cosmetic products (cosmetics), pharmaceuticals and FCM from uncoated aluminium, a significant exceedance of the EFSA-derived TWI and even the PTWI of 2 mg/kg bw/week, derived by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, may occur. Specifically, high exposure levels were found for adolescents aged 11-14 years. Although exposure data were collected with special regard to the German population, it is also representative for European and comparable to international consumers. From a toxicological point of view, regular exceedance of the lifetime tolerable aluminium intake (TWI/PTWI) is undesirable, since this results in an increased risk for health impairments. Consequently, recommendations on how to reduce overall aluminium exposure are given. Article Highlights • Risk assessment of total aluminium exposure from different sources for different age groups. • Use of data from the European TDS-Exposure project for the estimation of aluminium exposure from foodstuff. • Comprehensive overview of the toxicological properties of aluminium.

Probabilistic Risk Analysis to Assess Dietary Exposure to Aluminum in the Taiwanese Population

“…Tietz et al assessed the health risks resulting from total consumer exposure to Al. The mean dietary intake for the German adult aged 14-80 years of age range between 0.18 and 0.21 mg/kg-bw/wk [32]. On the other hand, available studies indicate that low dose of chronic exposure to Al compounds may have the potential to induce some behavioral changes, brain aging and neurodegeneration in experimental mice or rats [33,34].…”

“…10) and whole milk (25.89), respectively. Although studies have documented Al content in infant formula could be an important source of exposure for the 0-3 years [32,33], in Taiwan, infant formula diet has not been recorded to cause any effects on health. On the other hand, Al-containing adjuvants for children in vaccines have been suspected of causing effects, which include neurotoxicity and the autism spectrum, however, findings of an evidence-based meta-analysis of case-controlled studies suggest that vaccinations are not associated with the development of autism [34].…”

Re‐evaluation of sodium aluminium silicate (E 554) and potassium aluminium silicate (E 555) as food additives

“…The use of sodium aluminium silicate (E 554) as a food additive is expected to contribute to the dietary exposure to aluminium for which a TWI of 1 mg/kg bw per week has been established (EFSA, 2008). As aluminium intakes from the diet may exceed the TWI (EFSA, 2008;Tietz et al, 2019), exposure to aluminium from the use of sodium aluminium silicate (E 554) at the reported use levels was calculated considering that the food additive could contain up to 7.8% of aluminium (from the maximum amount of 15% of Al 2 O 3 according to EU specifications (Table 1)).…”

The Vitamin A and D Exposure of Cells Affects the Intracellular Uptake of Aluminum Nanomaterials and Its Agglomeration Behavior: A Chemo-Analytic Investigation

“…Further to this, the use of Al-containing food additives is restricted by the recommendation of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to lower the tolerable weekly intake (TWI) of Al to ≤1 mg/kg body weight. However, it was suggested that this TWI might be significantly exceeded, especially in children [6].…”