Carignan, Cottingham, Jackson, Farzan, Gandolfi, Punshon, Folt, Karagas 2015 — Estimated arsenic exposure in breastfed and formula-fed U.S. infants
This Environmental Health Perspectives paper from the Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth (Carignan, Cottingham, Jackson, Punshon, Folt, Karagas) plus University of Arizona (Gandolfi) and other collaborators reports estimated arsenic exposure in a U.S. infant cohort comparing breastfed and formula-fed infants. The paper uses urinary arsenic biomarkers paired with dietary intake assessment to characterize per-feeding-mode infant arsenic exposure. The Dartmouth group’s New Hampshire Birth Cohort is the canonical U.S. source for prospective infant-arsenic-exposure data; this 2015 paper, the related 2016 Carignan commentary, the 2016 Carignan first-year-of-life cohort paper (NIHMS-760843), and the Pikounis-Cottingham urinary biomarkers paper together form the U.S. infant-As prospective evidence cluster.
Key conclusions
Formula-fed infants had higher urinary arsenic biomarker levels than breastfed infants in the U.S. cohort, consistent with the higher arsenic content of formula reconstituted with rice-derived components or with arsenic-bearing reconstitution water versus the lower arsenic content of human milk. The paper supports per-feeding-mode arsenic exposure assessment as a basis for infant arsenic risk evaluation and reinforces that formula choice and reconstitution-water source materially affect infant arsenic body burden.
Implications
- Certification: Direct primary-evidence input for the per-feeding-mode arsenic exposure profile relevant to HMTc infant formula row scoping. The breastfed-vs-formula-fed comparison provides quantitative support for the infant-formula heavy-metal-load concern that the certification-floor case rests on.
- Courses: Standard reference for U.S. prospective infant-arsenic exposure data.
- App: Supports the formula-vs-breastmilk per-serving arsenic exposure estimate.