Potential Exposure to Arsenic from Infant Rice Cereal.
Rice is known to be high in arsenic, including in infant rice cereal. Although arsenic in drinking water is currently regulated, there are currently no US regulations regarding arsenic concentrations in food.



We used published values to estimate arsenic exposure via rice cereal relative to breast milk or formula for 6- to 12-month-old infants in the general US population.



We found that arsenic exposure from 3 servings of rice cereal exceeded that of formula made with water containing arsenic at 10 μg/L, the US Environmental Protection Agency maximum contaminant level.



Our findings suggest that rice cereal can markedly increase arsenic exposure among US infants relative to breast milk and formula.
Children's Environmental Health & Disease Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH; Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA. Electronic address: carignan@hsph.harvard.edu.
Courtney C
CC
Carignan
Children's Environmental Health & Disease Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH; Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.
Tracy
T
Punshon
Children's Environmental Health & Disease Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH; Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH.
Margaret R
MR
Karagas
Children's Environmental Health & Disease Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH; Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.
Kathryn L
KL
Cottingham
D000818:Animals; D001151:Arsenic; D002523:Edible Grain; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D005506:Food Contamination; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007225:Infant Food; D008895:Milk, Human; D012275:Oryza; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States
D001151:Arsenic
arsenic; environmental exposure; infant formula; rice cereal