ABSTRACT
Background: Prevention of negative health effects due to pesticide residues and contaminants in food is an important world-wide issue. It has been recognized that especially children may be a potentially vulnerable subgroup in this respect due to their higher consumption levels per kg body weight and differences in physiology compared to adults. Aim: To assess the dietary exposure and the related possible health risk to a selected number of compounds in young Dutch children in the Netherlands. Approach: Recent food consumption data of the Dutch National Food Consumption Survey-Young Children 2005/2006 were linked to recent monitoring concentration data. To assess both acute and chronic dietary exposure, the data were combined using advanced statistical models. The acute dietary exposure was calculated for the group of organophosphorus pesticides, and the chronic dietary exposure for acrylamide, dioxins (including dioxin-like PCBs), a number of mycotoxins (aflatoxin B1, deoxynivalenol, fumonisin B1, ochratoxin A and patulin) and nitrate. For the risk assessment the 99th percentile of exposure was compared to the health based limit value for chronic toxicity for all chemicals, except organophosphorus pesticides. For this group of pesticides, the99.9th percentile of exposure was compared to the health based limit value for acute toxicity. If the level of exposure exceeded the health based limit value, the percentage of children exceeding this limit was estimated. For acrylamide and aflatoxin B1, possible carcinogenic compounds with a genotoxic mechanism, a margin of exposure was derived. When the exposure exceeded the health based limit value or resulted in a relatively low margin of exposure, the available toxicity database was further reviewed with special attention to children to re-assess the risk. Results: According to the present findings the diet of young children in the Netherlands is safe regarding the exposure to fumonisin B1, deoxynivalenol, patulin, nitrate and organophosphorus pesticides present in food. For dioxins, there is a limited probability that an adverse health effect will occur. For acrylamide there is also a probability of an adverse health effect occurring in young children, although the extent to which this could happen is as yet unclear. This is due to in consistent results from epidemiology studies concerning the carcinogenicity of this compound. For aflatoxin B1and ochratoxin A, it was not feasible to determine whether or not an adverse health effect will occur, due to the use of (partly) targeted concentration data for these compounds. Conclusion: The diet of children aged 2 to 6 years in the Netherlands is safe regarding the exposure to fumonisin B1,deoxynivalenol, patulin (toxic compounds produced by fungi), nitrate and organophosphorus pesticides. For acrylamide, aflatoxin B1, dioxins and ochratoxin A, more research is needed to refine the risk assessment. The most important requirements for this purpose are the generation of representative concentration data for aflatoxin B1 and ochratoxin A and a better understanding of the toxicological effect of acrylamide. The complete report can be downloaded for free from http://www.rivm.nl/dsresource?objectid=rivmp:13714&type=org&disposition=inline&ns_nc= 1. Full report is also available as ‘Supplementary File’.