Looking up more about arsenic, there can be similar levels to that in rice found in apple juice, for example.
Surveys of various drinks yield surprising results: many rice milk drinks and fruit juices have arsenic concentrations that are up to six times higher than what is deemed safe in water (from 6 to 59 with a mean of 23 μg As l-1 in rice drinks [2,3]). Given that some children drink up to half a litre of fruit juice per day [3] and that lactose-intolerant people may consume significant amounts of rice milk drinks, the resulting dose of arsenic would be higher than the level considered safe. If a threshold for As in water is deemed relatively safe at 10 μg l-1 for people drinking up two 2 litres of water per day, how can up to 60 μg As l-1 be safe for people drinking nearly equivalent amounts of juice or rice drinks?
Time to revisit arsenic regulations: comparing drinking water and rice
The table in a book on arsenic shows that apple peels would be the part to avoid eating as far as arsenic goes:
Appendix A:Arsenic Content of Plants and Plant Products Other articles have mentioned grape juice too, although this table lists none detected for arsenic in that (while an
FDA report would be a clue that apple juice isn't necessarily high in arsenic either, unless you eat the apple juice concentrate). The big discrepancy though, as stated, is that arsenic is regulated in water and not in food, including juice, so in addition to the amount considered safe to drink from water, we are potentially going to be ingesting more of that found in foods which are not regulated yet.
Well, foods are regulated, but not as far as being required to contain no more arsenic than what is considered safe to drink (and whether the amount that is set for water also factors in that people would be eating more of it in food too). Something else I read was that the water used for agriculture was not regulated for its level of arsenic along with drinking water (e.g., "Results from this study show that irrigation with As rich water represents a significant risk to the population consuming contaminated crops"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28668750 and
Transfer of Arsenic into Food Materials through Groundwater Irrigation: "Even if supply of an arsenic-free drinking-water is ensured, arsenic-contaminated groundwater will continue to be used for irrigation purposes, posing a significant risk of this toxic element accumulating in the soil and, consequently, entering into the food-chain through plant uptake and consumption by animals and humans").
Another article says that
chronic inorganic arsenic exposure occurs mainly through drinking water.
From a global perspective, inorganic arsenic exposure is one of the most dangerous environmental health hazards for cancer and non-cancer outcomes... In endemic regions with high arsenic exposure, drinking water is the greatest source of arsenic exposure, followed by diet. In areas without arsenic exposure through drinking water and no occupational exposure, daily diet is the main source of arsenic intake. Rice consumption would be a considerable pathway for arsenic exposure, and the risk of arsenic exposure from rice should not be underestimated.
Human exposure to arsenic
The makers of Minute Rice basically
say that only inorganic arsenic is harmful and the majority of the arsenic in rice is the organic type, yet a peer reviewed article
says the opposite: "In contrast, rice contains predominantly inorganic arsenic". Further, "the authors estimated that diet contributed 54–85% of total inorganic arsenic intake for individuals whose tap water contained < 10 μg/L arsenic". Another study's results showed that "drinking water and food substantially contribute to As intake and increased exposure risk for adults in contaminated areas":
Estimation of Arsenic Intake from Drinking Water and Food (Raw and Cooked)... so it seems that foods containing it are known to result in elevated arsenic excretion, indicating an intake beyond the recommended amounts (by nine times from that estimate); therefore, regulating only drinking water would not prevent such excessive intake.
Here's a study done closer to home:
Arsenic in Rice and Rice Products Risk Assessment Report
In summary, the available evidence indicates that most of the arsenic in rice is released and absorbed. Based on in vivo experiments, the bioavailability of inorganic arsenic in rice is assumed to be between 70% and 90% in this risk assessment.
Consumption frequency and amount consumed per eating occasion of rice and rice products influences the total arsenic intake.
Decreasing the amount consumed per eating occasion and frequency of consumption could reduce cancer risk proportionally. Decreasing frequency from 1 serving of long grain white rice per day to 1/2 serving per day would result in a predicted reduction of the lifetime risk from 136 to 68 cases per million.
Reducing exposure to inorganic arsenic from rice grain and rice products reduces lifetime risk of cancer. Eliminating rice grain and rice products from the diet during infancy (< 1 year) and childhood (0 – 6 years) would potentially reduce the lifetime risk of cancer for the U.S. population from exposure to inorganic arsenic in rice and rice products by approximately 6% and 23%, respectively. This dietary change would also potentially reduce the risk of non-cancer adverse health effects.
Which foods or food products contribute the most to arsenic exposure from the diet?
There are two forms of arsenic in food, inorganic and organic. Most studies conducted over the last several decades have analyzed foods for total arsenic alone, and few studies or surveys have focused on exposure to speciated arsenic. FDA’s Total Diet Study (TDS) measures only total arsenic. Among the top 25 foods from TDS: (1) the highest levels of total arsenic were in seafood (mean 5.5 mg/kg from 1991 to 2011, haddock); (2) eight of the top 25 foods were rice grain or rice products; and (3) other foods included raw mushrooms, fried chicken products, and peanut butter (Appendix 9.1). However, because organic forms of arsenic are far less toxic and comprise the major form of arsenic in seafood, total arsenic determinations are not useful for comparing the risk from various food sources.
This risk assessment addresses a major contributor to the dietary burden of inorganic arsenic: rice grain and rice products. FDA’s sampling indicated that rice has the highest levels of inorganic arsenic, compared with other sampled food commodities, and rice is an ingredient of many products that consumers routinely eat. To estimate the total dietary burden from exposure from all foods consumed, additional data are needed, including information on the levels of inorganic arsenic in other foods.
FDA acknowledges that, in addition to cancer, inorganic arsenic has been associated with many non-cancer effects, including ischemic heart disease, diabetes, skin lesions, renal disease, hypertension, and stroke. Assessing all the risks associated with inorganic arsenic would take considerable time and resources and would delay taking any needed action to protect public health.
Assuming a U.S. population of 317 million and an average life expectancy of 78.6 years, we estimate for the U.S. population 154 annual lung and bladder cancers associated with dietary inorganic arsenic.
Mitigations that reduce the levels of inorganic arsenic in the product, reduce the frequency of consumption, or reduce the amount consumed per eating occasion will proportionally reduce the risk.
I've also found a
Supporting Document for Action Level for Arsenic in Apple Juice:
Apple juice is one source of exposure to inorganic arsenic from food. Apple juice is a greater potential source of dietary inorganic arsenic exposure to children than to adults, because children’s dietary patterns are often less varied than those of adults, and they consume more apple juice relative to their body weight than do adults.
FDA has concluded that it is appropriate to set an action level for inorganic arsenic because FDA sampling data show that inorganic arsenic is the main form of arsenic in apple juice and because inorganic arsenic is considered more toxic than organic arsenic.
FDA has concluded that a level of 10 µg/kg or 10 ppb inorganic arsenic is achievable under good manufacturing practices based on evaluation of recent FDA data on arsenic levels in apple juice samples purchased at retail. FDA also has concluded that an action level of 10 µg/kg or 10 ppb is adequate to protect the public health based on its risk assessment.
Anyway, what was this topic about... veganism refuted? Well, I think issues like this speak to some of the health benefits of
intermittent fasting myself. In conjunction with veganism, this should reduce one's chances of something or other, beyond veganism being considered the healthiest diet, foodstuff wise (it has to be balanced for this to be true, and that's an unknown, as far as exposure to toxins like arsenic, for which there hasn't been a risk assessment done with all foods, exept that eating less frequently would be known to reduce exposure in general).
