efsa-opinion-chromium-food-drinking-water

Chromium in food and drinking water
water could be estimated. The maximum estimates of chronic exposure to Cr(VI) in mean consumers
were 149.8 ng/kg b.w. per day (UB) for infants, and 148.7 ng/kg b.w. per day (UB) for ‘Toddlers’ at
the 95 th percentile exposure. In general, the exposure to Cr(VI) was lower than that estimated through
the consumption of all types of water due to the small amount of consumption data reported for
bottled water (27.7 % of the total). However, considering the estimates of exposure in several dietary
surveys, the CONTAM Panel concluded that regarding the exposure to Cr(VI) through the
consumption of bottled water there is a low concern from a public health point of view for average
consumers but there might be a potential concern for high consumers particularly for ‘Infants’,
‘Toddlers’ and ‘Other children’ (see Table 25).
Table 25: Margin of exposure (MOE) calculated across the different European dietary surveys for
Cr(VI) through the consumption of bottled water. Dietary surveys with no exposure to Cr(VI) (no
reported consumption on bottled water) were not considered when calculating the MOEs. MOEs are
rounded to two significant digits.
MOE (min LB-max
UB)
Mean exposure (a) 95 th percentile exposure (a)
Dietary surveys with
MOE below
10000/Total surveys (a)
MOE (min LB-max
UB)
Dietary surveys with
MOE below
10000/Total surveys (a)
Infants (b) 140 000-6700 ½ 26 000-6900 1/1
Toddlers (c) 520 000 000-16 000 0/9 38 000-6700 4/6
Other children (c) 77 000 000-22 000 0/16 1 600 000-7900 5/16
Adolescents (c) 8 900 000-28 000 0/11 1 200 000-9300 1/11
Adults (c) 840 000 000-26 000 0/15 940 000-9400 1/15
Elderly (c) 8 900 000-35 000 0/7 1 700 000-11 000 0/7
Very elderly (c) 18 000 000-41 000 0/6 190 000-14 000 0/5
(a): Number of surveys with a MOE lower than 10000 at the UB;
(b): Estimate only available from two dietary surveys for the mean and only one for the 95 th percentiles;
(c): Those dietary surveys with 95 th percentile exposure equal to zero were not included in the MOE calculation (see Table
10).
The inclusion of the water used in the preparation of specific foods (coffee, tea infusions, and dry
infant and follow-on food mainly, but also some others such as instant soup, evaporated and dried
milk, and dehydrated fruit juice) led to an increase up to two-fold of the exposure to Cr(VI). However,
the CONTAM Panel was not able to consider this additional contribution to the exposure to Cr(VI)
when deriving MOEs since no reliable data to quantify Cr(VI) in food exist.
Non-neoplastic effects
The BMDL 10 value of 0.11 mg Cr(VI)/kg b.w. per day for diffuse epithelial hyperplasia of the
duodenum in male mice was selected as RP to estimate the MOE for non-neoplastic lesions. The
comparison of this RP with estimated daily intakes of Cr(VI) via drinking water ranging up to 159.1
and 320.2 ng/kg b.w. per day (maximum UB for mean and 95 th percentile exposure) for the different
age groups resulted in an MOE of 690 and 340, respectively.
The BMDL 05 of 0.2 mg Cr(VI)/kg bw per day calculated for decreased haematocrit was selected as RP
to estimate MOEs for haematological effects. The comparison of this reference point with estimated
daily intakes of Cr(VI) via drinking water ranging up to 159.1 and 320.2 ng/kg b.w. per day
(maximum UB for mean and 95 th percentile exposure) for the different age groups resulted in an MOE
of 1300 and 630, respectively.
The CONTAM Panel considered that for the critical thresholded effects, MOEs larger than 100 would
indicate a low concern for human health and therefore concluded that for non-neoplastic lesions and
EFSA Journal 2014;12(3):3595 117