efsa-opinion-chromium-food-drinking-water
efsa-opinion-chromium-food-drinking-water
efsa-opinion-chromium-food-drinking-water
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Chromium in <strong>food</strong> and <strong>drinking</strong> <strong>water</strong><br />
Table 10: Summary statistics of the chronic exposure assessment (ng/kg b.w. per day) for Cr (VI)<br />
across all European dietary surveys through the consumption of bottled <strong>water</strong>. Dietary surveys with no<br />
data on consumption of bottled <strong>water</strong> were not included. Estimates were rounded up to one decimal<br />
place.<br />
Mean exposure (ng/kg b.w per day)<br />
Lower bound (LB)<br />
Upper bound (UB)<br />
Min Median Max Min Median Max<br />
Infants 7.3 - (a) 32.4 28.2 - (a) 149.8<br />
Toddlers < 0.1 6.9 13.5 < 0.1 26.4 62.5<br />
Other children < 0.1 4.1 11.6 < 0.1 16.2 44.8<br />
Adolescents < 0.1 1.4 9.6 < 0.1 6.3 35.7<br />
Adults < 0.1 0.7 10.1 < 0.1 2.8 37.8<br />
Elderly < 0.1 3.4 7.8 < 0.1 15.7 28.9<br />
Very Elderly 0.1 3.6 6.6 0.5 17.4 24.6<br />
95 th percentile exposure (b) (ng/kg b.w per day)<br />
Lower bound (LB)<br />
Upper bound (UB)<br />
Min Median Max Min Median Max<br />
Infants 38.3 - (c) - (c) - (c) - (c) 143.8<br />
Toddlers 0.0 27.6 39.9 0.0 109.8 148.7<br />
Other children 0.0 20.0 33.0 0.0 76.9 126.4<br />
Adolescents 0.0 10.3 29.0 0.0 38.2 107.9<br />
Adults 0.0 4.0 28.5 0.0 16.3 106.3<br />
Elderly 0.6 10.2 23.7 5.4 47.0 88.1<br />
Very Elderly 5.1 10.6 19.7 18.8 49.7 75.8<br />
(a): Not calculated since estimates were only available from two dietary surveys;<br />
(b): The 95 th percentile estimates obtained on dietary surveys/age classes with less than 60 observations may not be<br />
statistically robust (EFSA, 2011b). Those estimates were not included in this table.<br />
(c): Not calculated since estimates were only available from one dietary survey.<br />
Similarly to what is observed in Table 9 for <strong>drinking</strong> <strong>water</strong> as such, the maximum exposure to Cr(VI)<br />
through the consumption of bottled <strong>water</strong> was estimated in the youngest populations (‘Infants’ and<br />
‘Toddlers’) (Table 10). No exposure through the consumption of bottled <strong>water</strong> were reported in<br />
several dietary surveys, while the maximum estimates were 149.8 ng/kg b.w. per day (UB) for<br />
‘Infants’ mean consumers and 148.7 ng/kg b.w. per day (UB) for ‘Toddlers’ at the 95 th percentile<br />
exposure. As expected, the estimated exposure to Cr(VI) through consumption of bottled <strong>water</strong> was<br />
lower than that estimated through the consumption of all types of <strong>water</strong>, mainly due to the small<br />
amount of consumption data reported for bottled <strong>water</strong> (27.7 % of the total). However, in those dietary<br />
surveys with relatively high consumption of bottled <strong>water</strong>, <strong>chromium</strong> occurrence levels higher in<br />
bottled <strong>water</strong> than in other types of <strong>water</strong> led to Cr(VI) exposure levels similar to those estimated in<br />
the scenario on all types of <strong>water</strong> (e.g. 9.6 ng/kg b.w. per day for the mean exposure (LB) in<br />
‘Adolescents’ through the consumption of bottled <strong>water</strong> and 10.2 ng/kg b.w. per day for all types of<br />
<strong>water</strong>).<br />
Further scenarios, as commented above, considering the additional contribution of the <strong>water</strong> used to<br />
prepare certain <strong>food</strong>s before their consumption (such as coffee, tea infusions, and dry infant and<br />
follow-on <strong>food</strong>) were evaluated using a worst-case scenario with no reduction of Cr(VI) into Cr(III).<br />
To address this additional contribution to the exposure to Cr(VI), the consumption data reported for<br />
the prepared <strong>food</strong>s were linked to the occurrence data in tap <strong>water</strong> (for coffee and tea) and still mineral<br />
<strong>water</strong> (infant and follow-on <strong>food</strong>) (see occurrence values in Table 7). When the consumption of coffee<br />
and tea infusions were reported as solid, appropriate conversion factors were applied to tap <strong>water</strong><br />
EFSA Journal 2014;12(3):3595 58