Department of Family Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Hazen and Sawyer, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Breastfeed Med. 2021 Jul;16(7):558-563. doi: 10.1089/bfm.2020.0359. Epub 2021 Feb 9.
Human milk is a biofluid that can contain heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. These toxins can adversely affect endocrine, respiratory, immune, and nervous systems. Infants may have higher dietary arsenic exposure than adults due to their more restricted diets and greater intake per unit body mass. We identified commonly purchased vitamins, lactation bars, and supplements, to measure the concentration of heavy metals. The goal of the study was to measure and determine if vitamins and lactation foods could be a source of exposure. We tested 9 popular vitamins and 16 lactation bars and supplements all marketed toward breastfeeding mothers to determine the presence of heavy metals. All vitamins, bars, and supplements were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, for the total concentration of arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and lead, with the lowest detection limit of 0.001 μg/L. The majority of the samples had total arsenic levels below detectable quantities (detection limit of 1 part per trillion [0.001 μg/L]), one sample of syrup had a concentration of 0.112 ± 0.005, 0.132 ± 0.009, and 0.108 ± 0.010 μg of arsenic/g. We also tested nine popular prenatal vitamins for the amount of arsenic in one serving of vitamins per day and showed exposure to arsenic in one vitamin of 7.108 μg of arsenic/day. All lactation foods and vitamins tested had undetectable amounts of cadmium, mercury, and lead. Most of the vitamins and bars that were tested had below the detectable limit of arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury; we did find one vitamin and one rice syrup that had significantly higher levels. Our data suggest that it is highly feasible to manufacture vitamins and lactation foods and supplements with significantly lower concentrations of heavy metals.
人乳是一种含有重金属（如砷、镉、铅和汞）的生物液体。这些毒素会对内分泌、呼吸、免疫和神经系统造成不良影响。由于婴儿的饮食更为受限，且每单位体重的摄入量更大，因此他们可能比成年人有更高的砷膳食暴露量。我们鉴定了一些常见的维生素、哺乳期营养棒和补充剂，以测量重金属的浓度。该研究的目的是测量并确定维生素和哺乳期食品是否可能是暴露源。我们测试了 9 种流行的维生素和 16 种哺乳期营养棒和补充剂，这些产品都针对哺乳期母亲，以确定重金属的存在。所有维生素、营养棒和补充剂均使用电感耦合等离子体质谱法进行分析，以测量总砷、汞、镉和铅浓度，最低检测限为 0.001μg/L。大多数样本的总砷含量低于检测限（检测限为 1 万亿分之一 [0.001μg/L]），一种糖浆样本的浓度为 0.112±0.005、0.132±0.009 和 0.108±0.010μg/g 砷。我们还测试了 9 种流行的产前维生素中每天摄入一片维生素时的砷含量，并发现一种维生素中的砷暴露量为 7.108μg 砷/天。所有哺乳期食品和维生素的检测结果均未检出镉、汞和铅。大多数测试的维生素和营养棒的砷含量低于检测限，镉、汞和铅含量未检出；我们确实发现一种维生素和一种米糖浆的含量明显较高。我们的数据表明，制造重金属浓度显著降低的维生素和哺乳期食品及补充剂是非常可行的。
