Estimation of Multimedia Inorganic Arsenic Intake in the U.S. Population

Abstract

Arsenic is widely distributed in the environment by natural and human means. The potential for adverse health effects from inorganic arsenic depends on the level and route of exposure. To estimate potential health risks of inorganic arsenic, the apportionment of exposure among sources of inorganic arsenic is critical. In this study, daily inorganic arsenic intake of U.S. adults from food, water, and soil ingestion and from airborne particle inhalation was estimated. To account for variations in exposure across the U.S., a Monte Carlo approach was taken using simulations for 100,000 individuals representing the age, gender, and county of residence of the U.S. population based on census data. Our analysis found that food is the greatest source of inorganic arsenic intake and that drinking water is the next highest contributor. Inhalation of airborne arsenic-containing particles and ingestion of arsenic-containing soils were negligible contributors. The exposure is best represented by the ranges of inorganic arsenic intake (at the 10 th and 90 th percentiles), which were 1.8 to 11.4 µg/day for males and 1.3 to 9.4 µg/day for females. Regional differences in inorganic arsenic exposure were due mostly to consumption of drinking water containing differing inorganic arsenic content rather than to food preferences.

Survey of arsenic and its speciation in rice products such as breakfast cereals, rice crackers and Japanese rice condiments

“…The daily exposure to inorganic As from eating rice cereal could be at least 0.0042 mg, modeled for a typical UK diet and based on inorganic As levels found in this survey. Meacher et al (2002) estimate that the 50th percentile intake of inorganic As from soil, air, drinking water and food for US men is 0.0040 mg, whilst for women it is 0.0031 mg. For US children, average exposure from dietary sources alone is estimated at 0.0032 mg (Yost et al, 2004). When exposure is considered on a body mass basis, though, children are more vulnerable than adults (Meharg et al, 2008a,b,c).…”

“…A number of studies have indicated that in countries not suffering from high levels of As in drinking water, rice is the major contributor to inorganic As in the human diet (Meacher et al, 2002;Meliker et al, 2006;Williams et al, 2007a). This is in part due to rice being particularly efficient at taking up As from soil (Williams et al, 2007b) and exacerbated in major rice growing regions of the world with elevated As in paddy soil caused by to anthropogenic contamination (Meharg 2004;Williams et al, 2005Williams et al, , 2006Williams et al, , 2007a.…”

Urinary arsenic species, toenail arsenic, and arsenic intake estimates in a Michigan population with low levels of arsenic in drinking water

“…Inorganic arsenic in different foods was estimated by averaging across the literature (Supplementary Table S2). Comparable methods have been employed (Meacher et al, 2002) and used in our previous reports (Slotnick et al, 2007). Frequency and quantity (serving size) was obtained from the FIQ.…”

Biologically based modeling of multimedia, multipathway, multiroute population exposures to arsenic

“…The outcomes of this model evaluation provide valuable information with respect to expected confidence in applying MENTOR-4M to other areas as well as to identifying data gaps and relevant research needs for improving this confidence. For example, the modeling results of arsenic air exposure concentrations for the three counties were compared with the corresponding 1996 NATA calculations, while the multimedia/multipathway arsenic exposure estimates for one of the case studies (Franklin County, OH) were compared with the results of a nationalscale modeling study reported by Meacher et al (2002). To evaluate the intake/uptake estimates, the calculated biomarker (total arsenic in urine samples) levels for Franklin County, OH were compared with those measured in NHEXAS-V. An independent "pattern recognition" Classification and Regression Tree (CART) (Roy et al, 2003) analysis of the NHEXAS-V study data on arsenic was also performed.…”

“…Estimates-The MENTOR-4M estimates of total inorganic arsenic intakes for adult men and women of Franklin County, OH were compared with the corresponding estimates of a nationwide study (Meacher et al, 2002). The cumulative distributions of intake values estimated in the two studies were compared to assess the agreement across different percentiles of the population.…”