Grantee Research Project Results
2010 Progress Report: Food Borne Exposure to Arsenic During the First Year of Life
EPA Grant Number: R834599C002Subproject: this is subproject number 002 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R834599
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Center - Dartmouth College
Center Director: Karagas, Margaret Rita
Title: Food Borne Exposure to Arsenic During the First Year of Life
Investigators: Karagas, Margaret Rita , Folt, Carol L. , Cottingham, Kathryn L. , Punshon, Tracy
Institution: University of Miami , Dartmouth Medical School , Dartmouth College
Current Institution: Dartmouth Medical School , Dartmouth College
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Project Period: February 15, 2010 through February 14, 2013 (Extended to February 14, 2014)
Project Period Covered by this Report: February 15, 2010 through February 14,2011
RFA: Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers: Formative Centers (with NIEHS) (2009) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Children's Health , Human Health
Objective:
We are studying dietary exposure to metals, especially arsenic, during pregnancy and the first year of life. Recent data suggest that both drinking water and food, especially rice and seafood, contribute to arsenic exposure. This is particularly true for infants and toddlers, who often consume many different forms of rice during their transition to solid foods. Our goal is to understand how feeding and weaning habits influence arsenic exposure by measuring arsenic content of infant foods (breast milk, formula, cereals, and jarred foods) and quantifying dietary patterns via food frequency questionnaires and dietary records. Our specific aims are as follows:
Primary Aim: To determine how infant consumption of breast milk and formula contributes to exposure to arsenic during the first 4 months of life.
Secondary Aims:
1. To begin evaluating how increased infant consumption of solid foods affects arsenic exposure for infants aged 4-12 months.
2. To test the feasibility of measuring urinary metabolites of arsenic in infants at 4 months of age, and determine the relationships among urinary arsenic, arsenic ingestion estimated from food and water, and toenail arsenic levels.
Progress Summary:
To accomplish our primary aim, we have begun data collection on diet for infants at 4 months of age via telephone questionnaire (in coordination with Project 1). As of the end of this reporting period (February 2011), we have begun interviews with the parents and preliminary analyses of those data are underway. In addition, we have analyzed 11 common infant formulas at the Trace Elements Analysis Core at Dartmouth and will add to this database as we learn more about which formulas the infants in our study are eating.
Due to budgetary constraints, we have refocused secondary aim 1 (to begin evaluating how increased infant consumption of solid foods affects arsenic exposure for infants aged 4-12 months) to pilot test dietary assessment at 12 months. We are actively developing the instrument for this from existing tools, and expect to begin pilot testing it on one-year-olds by early summer 2011. We anticipate beginning work on secondary aim 2 (to test the feasibility of measuring urinary metabolites of arsenic in infants at 4 months of age, and determine the relationships among urinary arsenic, arsenic ingestion estimated from food and water, and toenail arsenic levels) within the next reporting period.
Other related research conducted in this reporting period includes three preliminary studies that will help to inform this study. The results of these studies should be submitted for review at peer-reviewed journals over the next few months. First, using data from case-control studies of adults, we evaluated associations between consumption of individual diet items and arsenic concentrations in toenail clippings for individuals with measured household tap water arsenic (Cottingham, et al., in preparation). Using the same dataset, we used general linear models to examine the associations between toenail arsenic and components of foods (e.g., proteins, lipids, vitamins and minerals), again taking into account the potentially confounding effects of variables such as sex, age, caloric intake, body-mass index, smoking status, and water arsenic concentration (Gruber, et al., in preparation). We are also completing work analyzing the associations between arsenic exposure via drinking water and diet (especially rice) and arsenic metabolites in the urine of pregnant women (Gilbert-Diamond, et al., in preparation).
Future Activities:
We will continue to collect data on infant consumption of breast milk and formula as additional infants are enrolled in this study, and to analyze arsenic content of both breast milk and the formulas which the infants are consuming. A major goal for the next year is to quantify arsenic exposure from diet for these infants by combining diet information with information on the arsenic content of each diet item.
In addition, we will continue market basket studies of foods reported to be consumed by infants during the first 4 months of life. We anticipate that between now and December 2011, we will develop and implement the protocols for testing the feasibility of measuring urinary metabolites of arsenic in infants at 4 months of age to achieve secondary aim 2.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 31 publications for this subprojectSupplemental Keywords:
water, drinking water, ground water, exposure, risk, health effects, human health, vulnerability, sensitive populations, population, infants, children, susceptibility, metals, heavy metals, public policy, decision making, community-based, public good, environmental chemistry, biology, geography, epidemiology, immunology, analytical, surveys, measurement methods, Northeast, EPA Region 1, food processing, drinking water safety, RFA, Health, Scientific Discipline, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Water, HUMAN HEALTH, Exposure, Environmental Chemistry, Biochemistry, Children's Health, Environmental Policy, Drinking Water, Biology, Risk Assessment, birth defects, prenatal exposure, perinatal exposure, children's vulnerablity, biological markers, arsenic exposure, dietary exposure, growth & development, arsenic, developmental disorders
Relevant Websites:
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractMain Center Abstract and Reports:
R834599 Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Center - Dartmouth College Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R834599C001 Arsenic and Maternal and Infant Immune Function
R834599C002 Food Borne Exposure to Arsenic During the First Year of Life
R834599C003 An Integrated Geospatial and Epidemiological Study of Associations Between Birth Defects and Arsenic Exposure in New England
R834599C004 Determining How Arsenic (As) Modulates Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) Signaling During Development
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
12 journal articles for this subproject
Main Center: R834599
76 publications for this center
29 journal articles for this center