Rice grains can take up arsenic from their
environment, and US rice has some of the highest arsenic concentrations in the
world.
Infant
rice cereal and rice snacks contain some arsenic, and babies who eat these
products have higher levels of arsenic in their urine, a study shows.
It’s not
clear yet whether the arsenic will affect their health down the line.
“We knew
rice cereal was a typical first food for babies – but we knew very little about
how common it is to feed infants rice cereal in the US, or about the timing of
introduction of rice cereal,” said lead author Margaret Karagas, of the Geisel
School of Medicine at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Rice
grains can take up arsenic from their environment, and US rice has some of the
highest arsenic concentrations in the world, she said.
“Arsenic
is a known carcinogen that can influence risk of cardiovascular, immune and
other diseases,” Karagas told Reuters Health by email. “There’s a growing body
of evidence that even relatively low levels of exposure may have adverse health
impacts on young children including on growth, immunity and neurodevelopment.”
She and
her team are still investigating whether the infants in this study had any
health effects due to arsenic exposure, she said.
The
researchers studied 759 infants born to mothers age 18 to 45. Parents reported
their infant’s intake of rice products like rice cakes or puffs or dried
breakfast cereals containing rice, or brands of cereal bars sweetened with
brown rice syrup, in interviews when the baby was four, eight and 12 months of
age. The researchers also collected infant urine samples to test for arsenic
levels.
About 80
percent of the children were introduced to rice cereal before age one, and a
third were eating rice snacks by their first birthday.
Among
kids who did not eat fish or seafood, urinary arsenic concentrations were
higher for those who ate infant rice cereal or snacks than for those who did
not, according to results in JAMA Pediatrics.
The
researchers also tested for arsenic levels in some of the more commonly
reported rice snacks.
“We were
surprised by the percentage of infants who ate rice snacks and that one of
these products contained levels above the current EU standard of 100 parts per
billion,” Karagas said. “This was a strawberry flavored puffed rice snack,
which contained 40 percent inorganic arsenic, with the first two ingredients
listed as brown and white rice flour.”
Inorganic
arsenic exposure has been linked to cancer as well as other health problems
such as neurological, cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic diseases, said
Dr. Antonio J. Signes-Pastor, of the Institute for Global Food Security at
Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.
“This is
of particular concern for young children, who are more sensitive to adverse
health effects of inorganic arsenic and consume higher amount of inorganic
arsenic from food compared to adults per kilogram of body weight,” said
Signes-Pastor, who was not part of the new study.
It is
important, he said in an email, “to reduce exposure by establishing maximum
limits of inorganic arsenic in rice and rice-based products.”
The US
Food and Drug Administration had proposed a limit for inorganic arsenic in
infant rice cereal of 100 parts per billion, which would mimic the current
limit in the European Union, Karagas said.
Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment