EU alarmed over high levels of toxic arsenic in brand-name cereals

EU alarmed over high levels of toxic arsenic in brand-name cereals

The European Union (EU) is making great strides to clean up the food supply. One of the toxic elements they are now seeking to limit is arsenic. The most infamous place to find arsenic is in rice products, since rice readily takes up arsenic from the soil and water that its grown in. When EU regulators tested brand-name rice cereals, the results were telling. The general population has been consuming excessive amounts of arsenic in basic brand-name cereals, many of which are adored by kids.



Products like Kellogg's Rice Krispies and Heinz Smooth Baby Rice far exceeded the new EU arsenic limits. In fact, 58 percent of cereals tested exceeded the new arsenic limit for babies and children.

Over half of rice-based cereal for children exceed new EU arsenic limits

Arsenic's toxicity is linked to heart disease, skin, bladder and lung cancers. It doesn't matter if people eat organic rice products or non-organic; either kind could contain high levels of arsenic. It comes down to the quality of water and soil the rice is grown in. Government bodies generally have limited resources to check food products for toxic elements like arsenic, but that is all changing, especially in the European Union. Channel 4 Dispatches tested a slew of rice cereals in Great Britain and found that over half of them contained unhealthy levels of arsenic. The new regulations are set to take hold in summer 2015 as part of a new Food Standards Agency initiative. If products don't meet the new standards, they are to be removed from stores until they test in compliance.



Basmati rice from India was the cleanest in terms of arsenic content

While short-term, low-dose exposure to arsenic is not immediately detrimental, it's the long-term exposure that should have people concerned. To top it off, people in Britain consume on average five times more rice today than they did 40 years ago. In some places in the world, rice is a staple crop, eaten daily.

The new EU arsenic standards promise to keep arsenic levels below 200 parts per billion for adult rice products. When different types of rice were tested from around the world, the results varied, with red rice from France containing the highest levels of arsenic -- 310 ppb. Italian brown rice contained 160 ppb on average, but basmati rice from India was the cleanest, measuring only 40 ppb arsenic.

Organic baby cereals contaminated with high levels of inorganic arsenic, the most dangerous form

The limit for children's http://www.dreddyclinic.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=41 rice products is stricter -- not to exceed 100 parts per billion. According to the US FDA, the form of arsenic most detrimental to one's health in the long run is inorganic arsenic. The EU arsenic tests found that Kellogg's Rice Krispies and Kallo Organic Puffed Rice Cereal contain a high concentration of the more dangerous inorganic arsenic. These products were tested several times; each test showed inorganic arsenic exceeding limits by far.

Kallo Foods' Organic Puffed Rice Cereal contained 323 parts of arsenic per billion! Another baby rice product called organic http://dreddyclinic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=33430 wholegrain baby rice by Organix exceeded standards, reaching levels as high as 268 ppb.

Kellogg's Rice Krispies measured well over the limits set for children too, clocking in at 188 ppb. Baby Organic Rice Cakes by Boots hit 162 ppb while Organic Wholegrain Banana Porridge by Organix peaked at 142 ppb arsenic.

Cleaning up arsenic in the food supply is more important than economics

Some think that the arsenic limits are too strict and could hurt businesses and the economy, but Andrew Meharg, professor of Biological Sciences at Queen's University Belfast, thinks the limits are actually lenient. He said, "The European Union http://dreddyclinic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=117&t=34650 is going to set standards for arsenichttp://www.dreddyclinic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=32333 levels in baby rice at 100 parts per billion. To my estimation that is far too high. It should be at least half that."

The bottom line should always be about preserving human health and increasing food safety -- not putting extra pennies in the pockets of business owners and their shareholders. Thankfully, groups like the Rice Association in the UK "welcome" the initiative to establish new arsenic limits in rice. The three companies with the highest arsenic levels, Boots, Organix and Kellogg's, also want to take the safety of their products seriously. The balance between preserving big business and protecting consumer health teeters, but looking around today, with cancer rates spiking, it's never been more important to protect consumer health.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2817542/More-half-rice-products-exceed-new-EU-limits-ARSENIC.html

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Breastfeeding protects babies from formula-induced arsenic poisoning

Breastfeeding protects babies from formula-induced arsenic poisoning




Infant formula may be contaminated with arsenic, suggests a study conducted by researchers from Dartmouth College and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives on February 23.

The study found that breastfed babies had lower levels of arsenic in their urine than formula-fed babies, even in areas where there was little arsenic contamination of local water supplies.

"This study's results highlight that breastfeeding can reduce arsenic exposure even at the relatively low levels of arsenic typically experienced in the United States," co-lead author Kathryn Cottingham said. "This is an important public health benefit of breastfeeding."

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element that is a potent poison and can lead to serious health consequences even in small doses. It has been linked with hormone disruption, cancer and other diseases, and early childhood exposure has been connected with lower birth weight, infant death, and lowered cognitive function.

But prior studies have shown that even when mothers are exposed to high levels of arsenic, breast milk does not contain high levels of the poison. Instead, the body seems to actively filter it out of the milk.

70 percent of arsenic comes from formula

The Dartmouth researchers analyzed urine from 72 six-week old babies born to mothers who had been recruited in January 2009 while pregnant. Seventy percent of the babies were being exclusively breastfed, 13 percent exclusively formula fed and 17 percent being fed on a combination. The highest arsenic levels were found among formula-fed infants, and the lowest among breastfed infants.

The study was conducted in New Hampshire, where 40 percent of the public's drinking water comes from private wells. Unlike with public water supplies, there is no regulation of arsenic levels in private wells. Thus, the arsenic exposure in the formula-fed infants might be expected to come from well water used to reconstitute powdered formula.

Yet after sampling the participants' water supplies and reviewing published data on arsenic levels in area wells, the researchers concluded that an astonishing 70 percent of the arsenic detected in the study actually came from the powdered formula itself.

"In conclusion, our findings suggest that breastfed infants have lower exposure to arsenic than formula-fed infants, even when drinking water arsenic concentrations are low," the researchers wrote.

Although breastfeeding rates in the study were high, this is because the infants were tested at such a young age.

"We predict that population-wide arsenic exposure will increase during the second part of the first year of life as the prevalence of formula-feeding increases," co-lead author Courtney Carignan said.

How to protect your child

In the rare cases where a woman absolutely must formula feed, Cottingham suggests testing the local water supplies to make sure that it is not contaminated with arsenic. Yet this would not protect against contamination in the formula itself.

A healthier option all around, when possible, would be to get human milk from a certified milk bank.

Even after babies or young children have weaned, they remain at risk for arsenic exposure. In a June 2014 report, the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) Committee on Nutrition warned that widespread arsenic contamination of rice poses a particular risk to infants and young children, who are often fed rice-based cereals and beverages. Rice ingredients, such as starch, are also commonly added to infant foods.

"That contributes to high exposure of infants and young children to inorganic arsenic which is two to three times higher than in adults," the report notes.

The report notes that neither the United States nor the European Union currently regulates the arsenic content of foods, not even foods meant for infants.

Sources:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/23/us-breastfeeding-arsenic-idUSKBN0LR0CW20150223

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1408789/

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-02/dc-bfp021815.php

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140715142658.htm

https://www.hmbana.org/locations

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