Grantee Research Project Results
2012 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: 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, 2012 through February 14,2013
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:
- To begin evaluating how increased infant consumption of solid foods affects arsenic exposure for infants aged 4-12 months
- 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:
Primary Aim: To determine how infant consumption of breast milk and formula contributes to exposure to arsenic during the first 4 months of life. We have made substantial progress on this aim and look forward to preparing a paper on our findings during spring-summer 2013.
In previous reports, we described market basket studies of arsenic concentrations in infant formulas and prepared foods. Two papers reporting these findings have now been published (Jackson et al. 2012a,b). These papers, especially the one on arsenic in organic brown rice syrup and toddler formulas sweetened with this product received considerable attention from the press and has brought this project into the public eye. In April 2012, PI Cottingham recorded a podcast for Environmental Health Perspectives describing the main points of that paper.
Data collection on diet for infants in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort (NHBC) at 4, 8 and 12 months of age via telephone questionnaire has continued in collaboration with Project 1. As of the end of this reporting period (1 February 2013), breastfeeding and formula use at 4 months continues to be surveyed by telephone for infants by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center (see Project 1).
We have also made strong progress on this aim through our implementation of a sampling point at 6 weeks post-partum that includes both diet and urine samples. Since late summer, we have been asking parents to complete a written, 3-day food diary (created in collaboration with dietary epidemiologist Kristy Hendricks) and then collect an infant urine sample during the days just before mothers 6 week-postnatal visit to her obstetrician or midwife. A novel part of our food diary, relative to existing ones, is the emphasis on the source and amount of water added to foods (formula, at 6 weeks), so that we can accurately quantify intake from the multiple pathways of food and water.
Secondary Aim 1: To begin evaluating how increased infant consumption of solid foods affects arsenic exposure during the period from 4-12 months.
Data collection on infant diets at 8 and 12 months of age via telephone questionnaire continued in collaboration with Project 1. In early fall, we added a number of questions to the 12-month questionnaire to learn more about trajectories in infant feeding and current use of particular products: we ask more detailed questions about the timing of introduction of solids, what foods were introduced and at what time, and the use of dietary supplements such as vitamins.
We are also starting to collect 3-day food diaries, infant urine samples, and infant and maternal toenail samples at 12 months, targeting the last ~250 infants enrolled into the NHBC. This food diary (again developed in consultation with Hendricks) is a longer, more complex version of the one used at 6 weeks. These samples will allow us to learn about post-weaning exposure through direct measurements, rather than the indirect assessments from the telephone questionnaire.
After sufficient samples are obtained, we plan to combine data on consumption of solids from these dietary records with our market basket surveys to estimate actual exposure for infants in our cohort and to compare the estimated exposure with urinary arsenic concentrations.
To develop and refine our methodologies for our studies of infant dietary exposure to arsenic, we have conducted several studies on dietary exposure to arsenic in other age groups, including pregnant women (Gilbert-Diamond et al. 2011), New Hampshire adults (Gruber et al. 2012, Cottingham et al. in revision), and children sampled as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Davis et al. 2012).
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.
Over the past year, we have made this a focus of the project, and currently see the infant urine samples as a vital part of work on Aim 1 as well.
Taken together, the food diaries and urinary arsenic data will allow us to evaluate biomarkers of recent exposure in U.S. infants, before weaning (at 6 weeks) and after weaning (at 12 months), as related to potential exposure via particular formulas and foods.
Future Activities:
We will continue to collect data on infant consumption of breast milk and formula via telephone and collect food diaries and urine samples at 6 weeks as additional infants are enrolled in this study. In addition, we will begin to collect food diaries, urine samples, and toenail clippings at 12 months.
Two major goals for the next year are to: (1) analyze the extensive data collected as part of the telephone questionnaire and (2) analyze the food diaries and process the breast milk and urine samples we have been collecting at 6 weeks. We will also begin to synthesize data on exposure from diet by combining diet information with information on the arsenic content of each diet item, as well as urinary arsenic concentrations.
Journal Articles on this Report : 8 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other subproject views: | All 31 publications | 12 publications in selected types | All 12 journal articles |
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| Other center views: | All 76 publications | 29 publications in selected types | All 29 journal articles |
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Carey AM, Norton GJ, Deacon C, Scheckel KG, Lombi E, Punshon T, Guerinot ML, Lanzirotti A, Newville M, Choi Y, Price AH, Meharg AA. Phloem transport of arsenic species from flag leaf to grain during grain filling. New Phytologist 2011;192(1):87-98. |
R834599 (2012) R834599C002 (2012) |
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Carey A-M, Lombi E, Donner E, de Jonge MD, Punshon T, Jackson BP, Guerinot ML, Price AH, Meharg AA. A review of recent developments in the speciation and location of arsenic and selenium in rice grain. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 2012;402(10):3275-3286. |
R834599 (2012) R834599 (Final) R834599C002 (2012) R834599C002 (Final) |
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Davis MA, Mackenzie TA, Cottingham KL, Gilbert-Diamond D, Punshon T, Karagas MR. Rice consumption and urinary arsenic concentrations in U.S. children. Environmental Health Perspectives 2012;120(10):1418-1424. |
R834599 (2012) R834599 (Final) R834599C001 (2012) R834599C001 (Final) R834599C002 (2012) R834599C002 (Final) |
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Gilbert-Diamond D, Cottingham KL, Gruber JF, Punshon T, Sayarath V, Gandolfi AJ, Baker ER, Jackson BP, Folt CL, Karagas MR. Rice consumption contributes to arsenic exposure in US women. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2011;108(51):20656-20660. |
R834599 (2011) R834599 (2012) R834599 (Final) R834599C001 (Final) R834599C002 (2012) R834599C002 (Final) |
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Gruber JF, Karagas MR, Gilbert-Diamond D, Bagley PJ, Zens MS, Sayarath V, Punshon T, Morris JS, Cottingham KL. Associations between toenail arsenic concentration and dietary factors in a New Hampshire population. Nutrition Journal 2012;11:45 (10 pp.). |
R834599 (2011) R834599 (2012) R834599 (Final) R834599C001 (2012) R834599C001 (Final) R834599C002 (2012) R834599C002 (Final) |
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Jackson BP, Taylor VF, Punshon T, Cottingham KL. Arsenic concentration and speciation in infant formulas and first foods. Pure and Applied Chemistry 2012;84(2):215-223. |
R834599 (2012) R834599 (Final) R834599C002 (2012) R834599C002 (Final) |
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Jackson BP, Taylor VF, Karagas MR, Punshon T, Cottingham KL. Arsenic, organic foods, and brown rice syrup. Environmental Health Perspectives 2012;120(5):623-626. |
R834599 (2011) R834599 (2012) R834599 (Final) R834599C001 (Final) R834599C002 (2012) R834599C002 (Final) |
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Yang J, Punshon T, Guerinot ML, Hirschi KD. Plant calcium content: ready to remodel. Nutrients 2012;4(8):1120-1136. |
R834599 (2012) R834599C002 (2012) |
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Supplemental 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, water safety, RFA, Health, Scientific Discipline, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, Water, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, HUMAN HEALTH, Environmental Policy, Biology, Environmental Chemistry, Exposure, Children's Health, Biochemistry, Drinking Water, Risk Assessment, dietary exposure, biological markers, growth & development, perinatal exposure, prenatal exposure, arsenic, children's vulnerablity, arsenic exposure, birth defects, developmental disordersRelevant 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
31 publications for this subproject
12 journal articles for this subproject
Main Center: R834599
76 publications for this center
29 journal articles for this center
12 journal articles for this subproject
Main Center: R834599
76 publications for this center
29 journal articles for this center