Dietary arsenic exposure in Brazil: The contribution of rice and beans

Virginia S T Ciminelli; Massimo Gasparon; Jack C Ng; Gabriela C Silva; Claudia L Caldeira

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.10.111

Dietary arsenic exposure in Brazil: The contribution of rice and beans

Chemosphere. 2017 Feb:168:996-1003. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.10.111. Epub 2016 Nov 9.

Authors

Virginia S T Ciminelli¹, Massimo Gasparon², Jack C Ng³, Gabriela C Silva⁴, Claudia L Caldeira⁵

Affiliations

¹ Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Belo Horizonte 31270901, Brazil; National Institute of Science and Technology on Minerals Resources, Water and Biodiversity, INCT-Acqua, Brazil. Electronic address: ciminelli@demet.ufmg.br.
² National Institute of Science and Technology on Minerals Resources, Water and Biodiversity, INCT-Acqua, Brazil; The University of Queensland, School of Earth Sciences, St Lucia 4072, Australia. Electronic address: m.gasparon@uq.edu.au.
³ National Institute of Science and Technology on Minerals Resources, Water and Biodiversity, INCT-Acqua, Brazil; The University of Queensland, National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology (Entox), Member of Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Science (QAEHS), Brisbane 4108, Australia. Electronic address: j.ng@uq.edu.au.
⁴ National Institute of Science and Technology on Minerals Resources, Water and Biodiversity, INCT-Acqua, Brazil.
⁵ Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Belo Horizonte 31270901, Brazil; National Institute of Science and Technology on Minerals Resources, Water and Biodiversity, INCT-Acqua, Brazil.

PMID: 27836272
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.10.111

Abstract

The human health risk associated with arsenic in food in Southeast Brazil was quantified. Based on the most commonly consumed food types in the Brazilian diet, the maximum inorganic As (iAs) daily intake from food (0.255 μg kg^-1 body weight per day) is approximately 9% of the Benchmark Dose Lower Limit (BMDL_0.5) of 3 μg kg^-1 body weight per day set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Joint Expert Committee in Food Additives (JECFA). When water is included, the contribution of food to the total intake varies from 96.9% to 39.7%. Rice and beans, the main Brazilian staple food, contribute between 67 and 90% of the total As intake from food (46-79% from rice and 11-23% from beans). The substantial contribution of beans to total As food intake is reported for the first time. The broad range of As concentrations in rice and beans highlights the variable and potentially large contribution of both to As food intake in places where diet consists largely of these two food categories.

Keywords: Arsenic in food; Beans; Brazilian diet; Exposure assessment; Health risk assessment; Rice.

MeSH terms

Agriculture
Arsenic / analysis*
Brazil
Diet
Environmental Exposure / analysis*
Food Contamination / analysis*
Humans
Oryza / chemistry*
Phaseolus / chemistry*

Substances

Arsenic