Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S102TN, United Kingdom.
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S102TN, United Kingdom.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2020 Jul 1;197:110601. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.110601. Epub 2020 Apr 14.
Consumption of rice and rice products can be a significant exposure pathway to inorganic arsenic (iAs), which is a group 1 carcinogen to humans. The UK follows the current European Commission regulations so that iAs concentrations must be < 0.20 mg kg in white (polished) rice and <0.25 mg kg in brown (unpolished) rice. However, iAs concentration in rice used for infant food production or direct consumption has been set at a maximum of 0.1 mg kg. In this context, this study aimed to evaluate iAs concentrations in different types of rice sold in the UK and to quantify the health risks to the UK population. Here, we evaluated 55 different types of rice purchased from a range of retail outlets. First, we analysed all rice types for total As (tAs) concentration from which 42 rice samples with tAs > 0.1 mg kg were selected for As speciation using HPLC-ICP-MS. Based on the average concentration of iAs of our samples, we calculated values for the Lifetime Cancer Risk (LCR), Target Hazard Quotient (THQ) and Margin of Exposure (MoE). We found a statistically significant difference between organically and non-organically grown rice. We also found that brown rice contained a significantly higher concentration of iAs compared to white or wild rice. Notably, 28 rice samples exceeded the iAs maximum limit stipulated by the EU (0.1 mg kg) with an average iAs concentration of 0.13 mg kg; therefore consumption of these rice types could be riskier for infants than adults. Based on the MoE, it was found that infants up to 1 year must be restricted to a maximum of 20 g per day for the 28 rice types to avoid carcinogenic risks. We believe that consumers could be better informed whether the marketed product is fit for infants and young children, via appropriate product labelling containing information about iAs concentration.
食用大米和大米制品可能是摄入无机砷（iAs）的重要途径，而 iAs 是被归为 1 类人类致癌物。英国遵循现行的欧盟委员会法规，规定白米（精米）中 iAs 浓度必须<0.20 毫克/千克，糙米（未抛光大米）中 iAs 浓度必须<0.25 毫克/千克。然而，用于婴儿食品生产或直接食用的大米中 iAs 浓度的最高限量设定为 0.1 毫克/千克。在这种情况下，本研究旨在评估在英国销售的不同类型大米中的 iAs 浓度，并量化英国人口面临的健康风险。在此，我们评估了从各种零售店购买的 55 种不同类型的大米。首先，我们分析了所有大米类型的总砷（tAs）浓度，从中选择了 42 种 tAs 浓度>0.1 毫克/千克的大米样本，使用 HPLC-ICP-MS 进行砷形态分析。基于我们样本中 iAs 的平均浓度，我们计算了终生癌症风险（LCR）、目标危害系数（THQ）和暴露边际（MoE）的值。我们发现有机和非有机种植的大米之间存在统计学上的显著差异。我们还发现糙米中 iAs 的浓度明显高于白米或野生稻。值得注意的是，28 种大米样本超过了欧盟规定的 iAs 最高限量（0.1 毫克/千克），平均 iAs 浓度为 0.13 毫克/千克；因此，对于婴儿来说，食用这些大米类型的风险可能比成人更高。基于 MoE，发现 1 岁以下的婴儿每天必须限制摄入 28 种大米类型中的 20 克，以避免致癌风险。我们认为，通过在适当的产品标签上包含关于 iAs 浓度的信息，消费者可以更好地了解所购买的产品是否适合婴儿和幼儿。
