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Preschool kids more prone to food-borne toxins

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 08:50 AM    Views : 1676by:Ching M. Alano

In a sobering study published in the journal Environmental Health, researchers at UC Davis and UCLA measured food-borne toxin exposure in children and adults by pinpointing foods with high levels of toxic compounds and determining how much of these foods were consumed. The researchers found that family members in the study, and preschool children in particular, are at high risk for exposure to arsenic, dieldrin, DDE (a DDT metabolite), dioxins, and acrylamide. These compounds have been linked to cancer, developmental disabilities, birth defects, and other conditions. However, the study also points to dietary modifications that could mitigate risk.

"Contaminants get into our food in a variety of ways," said study principal investigator Irva Hertz-Picciotto, professor and chief of the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health at UC Davis. "They can be chemicals that have nothing to do with the food or by-products from processing. We wanted to understand the dietary pathway pesticides, metals, and other toxins take to get into the body.

Researchers assessed risk by comparing toxin consumption to established benchmarks for cancer risk and non-cancer health risks. All 364 children in the study (207 preschool children between two and seven, and 157 school-age children between five and seven) exceeded cancer benchmarks for arsenic, dieldrin, DDE and dioxins. In addition, more than 95 percent of preschool children exceeded non-cancer risk levels for acrylamide, a cooking by-product often found in processed foods like potato and tortilla chips. Pesticide exposure was particularly high in tomatoes, peaches, apples, peppers, grapes, lettuce, broccoli, strawberries, spinach, dairy, pears, green beans, and celery.

The results of this study demonstrate a need to prevent exposure to multiple toxins in young children to lower their cancer risk."

Source: http://www.pchrd.dost.gov.ph/index.php/2012-05-23-07-46-36/2012-05-24-00-03-06/5880-preschool-kids-more-prone-to-food-borne-toxins

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