Potential Exposure to Arsenic from Infant Rice Cereal
Abstract
Background
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.
Objective
We used published values to estimate arsenic exposure via rice cereal relative to breast milkor formula for 6- to 12-month-old infants in the general US population.
Results
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.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that rice cereal can markedly increase arsenic exposure among US infants relative to breast milk and formula.
© 2016 Courtney C. Carignan, Tracy Punshon, Margaret R. Karagas, Kathryn L. Cottingham, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.