Dietary arsenic exposure in Brazil: The contribution of rice and beans.
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-1body weight per day) is approximately 9% of the Benchmark Dose Lower Limit (BMDL0.5) of 3 μg kg-1body 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.
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.
Virginia S T
VST
Ciminelli
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.
Massimo
M
Gasparon
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.
Jack C
JC
Ng
National Institute of Science and Technology on Minerals Resources, Water and Biodiversity, INCT-Acqua, Brazil.
Gabriela C
GC
Silva
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.
Claudia L
CL
Caldeira
D000383:Agriculture; D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis*; D001938:Brazil; D004032:Diet; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D012275:Oryza / Q000737:chemistry*; D027805:Phaseolus / Q000737:chemistry*
D001151:Arsenic
Arsenic in food; Beans; Brazilian diet; Exposure assessment; Health risk assessment; Rice