PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

P E Corneliussen

Publications and source records attributed to P E Corneliussen.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1977

Levels of arsenic in the United States food supply.

At the present time, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accords the highest priority to mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, and zinc in its program on toxic elements in foods. The only regulatory levels for arsenic in foods in the U. S. are the tolerances which have been established for its residues in specified foods, resulting from the application of arsenical pesticides on food and feed crops and from animal feed additives. FDA has monitored for arsenic in its Total Diet Survey since the inception of this program. The data from this program indicate that the average daily intake for arsenic (as As(2)O(3)) has decreased from about 130 mug/day in 1968 to about 20 mug/day in 1974. Most of the arsenic is found in the meat-fish-poultry food class of the total diet. In individual foods, the highest levels were found in fish, with a mean level of about 1.5 ppm (as As(2)O(3)) in the edible portion of finfish. Much lower levels were found in all the other food types analyzed; of these, the highest levels found were a mean level of 0.08 ppm in chicken and 0.16 ppm in rice. FDA toxicologists do not believe that the average daily intake of arsenic, or its levels in the different food commodities, pose a hazard to the consumer.

Arsenic↗
PubMed1975

Heavy metal exposure from foods.

The Food and Drug Administration has a continuing program of monitoring foods for their content of lead, cadmium, mercury, zinc, arsenic, and selenium to determine trends of increasing or decreasing levels. The monitoring protocol is that of the Total Diet Study, in which "market baskets" of typical foods and beverages consumed by 15- to 20-year-old American males are collected in various geographical locations at regular intervals during the year, divided into food classes, composited, and analyzed. Cadmium has the most widespread distribution of the six heavy metals and mercury the most limited. The analytical values for lead may be underestimated because of limitations of the methodology; these do not apply to the other five elements. A tabulation by year shows that the levels of these elements in foods do not vary significantly from one year to the next. Average intakes of lead, cadmium, and mercury are below the WHO/FAO tolerable intakes for adults; such tolerable intakes have not been established for arsenic and selenium. Increases in concentrations of these elements in foods would be considered undesirable, however.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls and pesticides in bluefish before and after cooking.

Similar levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides, and fat were found in 20 correlated uncooked and cooked (baked) bluefish fillets. Fillets averaged 2.5 ppm PCBs as Aroclor 1254 (whole basis) before cooking; after cooking, with the oil drippings and skin discarded, the average PCB level was 2.7 ppm. Although PCBs, lipophilic pesticides, and fat were lost along with oil drippings and skin that were discarded after cooking, the moisture loss in the fillets during cooking compensated for these weight losses almost completely. After the fillets were cooked and the oil drippings and skin were discarded, the PCB content of the fillets was 27% lower on the average.

Animals↗