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Thursday 3 September 2015

Arsenic concentrations in young Poultry chickens may be approximately 3-fold greater than in other meat and other poultry products

BY
Professor Pranab kumar Bhattacharya
Arsenic is a heavy metal that is found in inorganic and organic forms in  drinking water, food, soil, dust, wood, and other materials. Inorganic forms of arsenic have been classified as human carcinogens and are more toxic than organic forms, but variation in toxicity among inorganic and organic forms is considerable. Chronic arsenic exposure in the range of 0.01–0.04 mg/kg/day has been associated with skin cancers(SCC, BCC, Bowen diseases) respiratory cancers; bladder cancers, Liver cancer(Angiosarcoma) increased mortality from hypertensive heart disease, nephritis and nephrosis, and prostate cancers Too . The general population is exposed to arsenic through drinking water, dusts, fumes, cigarette smoking and variuos dietary sources, with the highest concentrations of arsenic reported in seafoods, rice, mushrooms, and poultry products. Arsenic is an approved animal dietary supplement and is found in specifically approved drugs added to poultry and other animal feeds. Roxarsone (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl arsonic acid) is the most frequently used additive among a group of organic arsenic compounds added to feed of broiler poultry chickens to control coccidial intestinal parasites. Roxarsone in fact contains organic arsenic in the +5 oxidation state. Most of the excreted arsenic (found in litter) remains as the parent compound or as the amino-metabolite. The forms may be found in chicken muscles also.
The ability of trace elements ingested by chickens to affect the dose delivered to humans through much chicken consumptions has been shown for iodine, iron, zinc, uranium, and potassium. It is reasonable to assume that arsenic ingested through much chicken consumption may similarly affect the dose delivered to humans . Arsenic concentrations in young chickens may be approximately 3-fold greater than in other meat and poultry products. The higher arsenic concentrations observed in chickens compared with other poultry and meat products is consistent with the use of chicken feed containing additives including arsenic compound
It is estimated that when > 0.13 µg/g total arsenic in chicken muscle tissue is found it would be somewhat higher and may be toxic to human . For a person when weighing 70 kg (154 lb), this would be 0.30–0.44 µg/kg/day inorganic arsenic intake, below the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) tolerable daily intake of 2 µg/kg/day of inorganic arsenic (WHO 1983) but comprising a sizable proportion of the tolerable daily intake. A smaller percentage of people (0.1%) rather consume ≥ 612 g chicken/day and may ingest as much as 36.94–53.50 µg inorganic arsenic/day and 56.83–82.30 µg total arsenic/day through chicken consumption alone. For a person weighing 70 kg (154 lb), this would be 0.53–0.76 µg/kg/day inorganic arsenic intake, and if we assume a higher body weight of 100 kg (consistent with a high daily intake of chicken), inorganic arsenic ingestion might be 0.37–0.54 µg/kg/day. Again, these estimates are below the FAO/WHO JECFA tolerable daily intake of 2 µg/kg/day of inorganic arsenic (WHO 1983) but may account for a sizable proportion of tolerable daily intake. So it is better to be cautious for meat consumption.
Reference
1] Tamar Lasky, Wenyu Sun, Abdel Kadry, and Michael K. Hoffman “Mean Total Arsenic Concentrations in Chicken 1989–2000 and Estimated Exposures for Consumers of Chicken Environmental Health Perspectives • VOLUME 112 | NUMBER 1 | January 2004
 Published as a comment in "Food Safety News Breaking news for every one's consumption"

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