Dietary intake of arsenic by children and adults from Jinhu area of China

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate the dietary intake of arsenic (As) by children and adults from Jinhu area of China. A duplicate diet approach was used to collect diet samples in November and December 2007. The As content was measured by hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry. The As intakes (median) for different group were: children: 0.6 µg kg⁻¹ bw day⁻¹ or 6.7 µg kg⁻¹ bw week⁻¹; adults: 0.5 µg kg ⁻¹ bw day⁻¹ or 3.8 µg kg ⁻¹ bw week⁻¹, none of which exceeded the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of 15 µg kg ⁻¹ bw week⁻¹ for As proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The median and maximum of the children group amounted to 44.7% and 125.3% of the PTWI; the values for adults were 25.3% and 118.7%, respectively. There were 3.3% of children whose weekly As intake exceeded the PTWI, and there were 6.7% of adults whose weekly As intake exceeded the PTWI. It is concluded that dietary As intake was safe for most people in Jinhu area, but the high dietary As intake for a minority of people in this area deserves attention.

Keywords:

• duplicate diets
• exposure assessment
• heavy metals
• arsenic
• seafood
• animal products
• meat
• rice
• vegetables

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 30671763) and the National Science and Technology Support Program (Grant Number 2006BAK02A01). The authors wish to express their thanks to all the survey staff for the sampling of duplicate portions. Special thanks are due to Jinhu CDC for assistance in recruiting volunteers as well as for sample preparation. The Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of Agricultural Products Quality and Security of Jiangsu province is thanked for the analysis of food samples. Finally, the authors express their thanks to the Editor and anonymous referees for insightful comments on this paper.