title: Estimated exposure to arsenic in breastfed and formula-fed infants in a United States cohort.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies indicate that concentrations of arsenic in breast milk are relatively low even in areas with high drinking-water arsenic. However, it is uncertain whether breastfeeding leads to reduced infant exposure to arsenic in regions with lower arsenic concentrations.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We estimated the relative contributions of breast milk and formula to arsenic exposure during early infancy in a U.S.
  
  
  METHODS
  We measured arsenic in home tap water (n = 874), urine from 6-week-old infants (n = 72), and breast milk from mothers (n = 9) enrolled in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study (NHBCS) using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Using data from a 3-day food diary, we compared urinary arsenic across infant feeding types and developed predictive exposure models to estimate daily arsenic intake from breast milk and formula.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Urinary arsenic concentrations were generally low (median, 0.17 μg/L; maximum, 2.9 μg/L) [corrected] but 7.5 times higher for infants fed exclusively with formula than for infants fed exclusively with breast milk (β = 2.02; 95% CI: 1.21, 2.83; p < 0.0001, adjusted for specific gravity). Similarly, the median estimated daily arsenic intake by NHBCS infants was 5.5 times higher for formula-fed infants (0.22 μg/kg/day) than for breastfed infants (0.04 μg/kg/day). Given median arsenic concentrations measured in NHBCS tap water and previously published for formula powder, formula powder was estimated to account for ~ 70% of median exposure among formula-fed NHBCS infants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that breastfed infants have lower arsenic exposure than formula-fed infants, and that both formula powder and drinking water can be sources of exposure for U.S. infants.
authors.affiliation: Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA.
authors.forename: Courtney C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Carignan
authors.forename: Kathryn L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Cottingham
authors.forename: Brian P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: Shohreh F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Farzan
authors.forename: A Jay
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Gandolfi
authors.forename: Tracy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Punshon
authors.forename: Carol L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Folt
authors.forename: Margaret R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Karagas
mesh_terms: D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D001942:Breast Feeding; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D041943:Infant Formula / Q000737:chemistry; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry*; D009513:New Hampshire; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D001151:Arsenic