| Mean Total Arsenic Concentrations in Chicken 1989-2000 and Estimated Exposures for Consumers of Chicken Tamar Lasky, Wenyu Sun, Abdel Kadry, and Michael K. Hoffman Office of Public Health and Science, Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC, USA Abstract
The purpose of this study was to estimate mean concentrations of total arsenic in chicken liver tissue and then estimate total and inorganic arsenic ingested by humans through chicken consumption. We used national monitoring data from the Food Safety and Inspection Service National Residue Program to estimate mean arsenic concentrations for 1994-2000. Incorporating assumptions about the concentrations of arsenic in liver and muscle tissues as well as the proportions of inorganic and organic arsenic, we then applied the estimates to national chicken consumption data to calculate inorganic, organic, and total arsenic ingested by eating chicken. The mean concentration of total arsenic in young chickens was 0.39 ppm, 3- to 4-fold higher than in other poultry and meat. At mean levels of chicken consumption (60 g/person/day) , people may ingest 1.38-5.24 µg/day of inorganic arsenic from chicken alone. At the 99th percentile of chicken consumption (350 g chicken/day) , people may ingest 21.13-30.59 µg inorganic arsenic/day and 32.50-47.07 µg total arsenic/day from chicken. These concentrations are higher than previously recognized in chicken, which may necessitate adjustments to estimates of arsenic ingested through diet and may need to be considered when estimating overall exposure to arsenic. Key words: arsenic, chicken, dose, drug residue, exposure, food safety, risk assessment. Environ Health Perspect 112:18-21 (2004) . doi:10.1289/ehp.6407 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 1 October 2003]
Address correspondence to T. Lasky, National Institute of Child Health and Development, MSC 7510, 6100 Executive Boulevard, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA. Telephone: (301) 594-8670. Fax: (301) 480-1222. E-mail: TL177G@nih.gov The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 22 April 2003 ; accepted 1 October 2003.
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