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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Microbial and Chemical Food Safety » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #308769
Title: Inorganic arsenic in starchy roots, tubers, and plantain and assessment of cancer risk of sub-Saharan African populations

Author
item CHEN, TUANWEI - Fujian Agricultural & Forestry University
item Huang, Lihan
item LAI, GUOXIN - Meizhouwan Vocational Technology College
item Chen, Guoying

Submitted to: Food Control
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/17/2015
Publication Date: 1/29/2015
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/60302
Citation: Chen, T., Huang, L., Lai, G., Chen, G. 2015. Inorganic arsenic in starchy roots, tubers, and plantain and assessment of cancer risk of sub-Saharan African populations. Food Control. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2015.01.016.

Interpretive Summary: Starchy roots, tubers, and plantain (RTP), with world production at 914 million tonnes in 2012, are the staple food in sub-Saharan Africa, and also important energy sources in Asia, Europe, and America. In this work, inorganic arsenic (iAs) in these crops was quantified by hydride generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG-AFS) after separation and cleanup by solid phase extraction (SPE). The method was validated using rice flour standard reference material from National Institute of Standards and Technologies. Overall, iAs ranged from 0.9 to 16.0 ng/g wet weigh in these crops. Long-term cancer risk associated with iAs intake from these crops was assessed by Monte Carlo simulation based on iAs concentrations and historical consumption and population data. For 19 high RTP consuming sub-Saharan African countries, life-time cancer risk was found to be minimal with a big safety margin.

Technical Abstract: Starchy roots, tubers, and plantain (RTP) are the staple food in sub-Saharan Africa, and also important energy sources in Asia, Europe, and America. In this work, inorganic arsenic (iAs) in these crops was quantified by hydride generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG-AFS) after solid phase extraction (SPE) separation. Standard reference material NIST 1568b rice flour was used for validation. Overall, iAs ranged from 0.9 to 16.0 ng g–1 wet weigh in these crops. Long-term cancer risk associated with iAs intake from these crops was assessed by Monte Carlo simulation based on iAs concentrations and historical consumption and population data. For 19 high RTP consuming sub-Saharan African countries, life-time cancer risk was found to be minimal with mean target risk at 2.73 × 10-5 and margin of safety (MOE) at 67. .