By Sarah Schmidt
OTTAWA — A new U.S. study has found levels of arsenic in some apple and grape juices that exceed drinking water standards in North America.
Consumer Reports tested 88 samples of juices, and found 10% had arsenic levels that topped the allowable limit for drinking water in the U.S. and Canada, set at 10 parts per billion (ppb). One in four had levels higher than the American limit for bottled water, set at five ppb.
Most of the arsenic found in the juices, a mainstay in the diet of many children, was inorganic, a known carcinogen. The samples included read-to-drink bottles, juice boxes and cans of concentrate from different lot numbers.
A second study, also published Wednesday by Consumer Reports, found that juice drinkers had, on average, about 20% higher levels of arsenic in their urine — reigniting a debate about the safety of these popular children’s drinks. Almost 3,000 people participated in the study led by Dr. Richard Stahlhut, an environmental health researcher at the University of Rochester.
Most of the brands tested are available in Canada, where drinking-water regulations also set the arsenic limit at 10 ppb. Samples of Great Value, Mott’s and Welch’s juice exceeded this benchmark, with arsenic levels ranging from 10.2 ppb to 13.9 ppb.
Unlike in the U.S., where there are no limits set for arsenic in juice, Canadian regulations for arsenic in bottled water and fruit juices allows 10 times more arsenic than the Canadian guideline for drinking water.
None of the juices tested came close to exceeding Health Canada’s elevated limit of 100 ppb, with a sample of Walgreen’s grape juice showing the highest level at 24.7 ppb.
David Boyd, an adjunct professor of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University, said Wednesday the results show why Canadian regulations need to be changed so juices aren’t treated differently than drinking water.
“It’s critically important because we’re talking about the health of our children,” said Boyd, who petitioned the commissioner for theenvironment andsustainable development in December 2006 about this regulatory anomaly.
In response, Health Canada said in May 2007 that a departmental survey indicated that with few exceptions, bottled water meets the maximum allowable limit set in the Canadian guidelines for drinking water. Data from another Health Canada study found that the arsenic concentrations in fruit juices are well below the current regulations, the department also said in its response to Boyd’s petition.
The scientists involved in the U.S. study are now urging the Food andDrug Administration to set a 3 ppb limit for arsenic in juice.
In a statement, the FDA said it “welcomes” the new report and will review the basis for the recommendation. In the meantime, the agency said it has been monitoring fruit juices for more than 20 years, and it continues to find “the vast majority of apple juice tested to contain low levels of arsenic, including the most recent samples from China. For this reason, FDA is confident in the overall safety of apple juice consumed in this country.”
Meanwhile, the Juice Products Association told Consumer Reports that it is “committed to providing nutritious and safe fruit juice to consumers and will comply with limits established by the agency.”
The Consumer Reports study notes that over the years, a shift has occurred in how juice sold in North America is produced. Manufacturers often blend water with apple-juice concentrate. For the past decade, most concentrate came from China, the study notes.
“Concerns have been raised about the continuing use of arsenical pesticides there, and several Chinese provinces that are primary apple-growing regions are known to have high arsenic concentrations in groundwater.”
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