Range of foodborne total and inorganic arsenic exposure at 50% to 100% bioavailability for 13 WHO-GEMS clusters of countriesa
| GEMS Cluster | Lower boundary of total Asb (μg/kg bw/day)c | Upper boundary of total Asb (μg/kg bw/day) | Lowest boundary of iAsd (50% bioavailable) (μg/day)f | Upper boundary of iAse (100% bioavailable) (μg/day)f | Range of iAs exposure via rice and rice products (μg/day) | Population mid-2012 (millions)g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 0.91 | 1.26 | 4.8 | 53.4 | 0.92–6.95 | 302.5 |
| B | 2.87 | 3.47 | 10.37 | 108.35 | 0.32–2.41 | 224.9 |
| C | 1.38 | 1.79 | 9.09 | 85.46 | 0.95–7.22 | 263.7 |
| D | 1.32 | 1.72 | 6.71 | 66.95 | 0.33–2.53 | 408 |
| E | 1.41 | 1.83 | 5.75 | 63.45 | 0.13–0.97 | 339.2 |
| F | 1.84 | 2.19 | 5.25 | 57.27 | 0.13–0.97 | 26.7 |
| G | 2.08 | 2.42 | 7.82 | 75.14 | 3.79–28.78 | 3544.5 |
| H | 1.15 | 1.55 | 6.44 | 66.54 | 0.65–4.9 | 213.5 |
| I | 0.87 | 1.18 | 5.02 | 52.2 | 0.38–2.9 | 256.8 |
| J | 0.97 | 1.28 | 5.01 | 51.88 | 0.75–5.67 | 357 |
| K | 1.04 | 1.48 | 6.6 | 66.13 | 2.39–18.19 | 335.7 |
| L | 2.69 | 3.05 | 7.88 | 79.1 | 3.84–29.1 | 307.4 |
| M | 1.35 | 1.83 | 6.44 | 70.56 | 0.35–2.64 | 436.8 |
NOTE: Data are adapted from reference 28.
↵aListing of countries within each cluster is available at http://www.who.int/foodsafety/chem/gems/en/index1.html.
↵bCalculations based on Table 13, reference 26 for range of total arsenic content in food items.
↵cAssuming 60 kg body weight per individual.
↵dLower bound for iAs content assumes non-detect equals zero.
↵eUpper bound for iAs content assumes non-detect equals the limit of detection.
↵fCalculations based on Table 15, reference 26 for range of mean% inorganic arsenic content in food items.
↵gData source: “Population Data sheet 2012” by the Population Reference Bureau (www.prb.org). PRB has derived the data from International Programs Center of the U.S. Census Bureau, the United Nations (UN) Population Division, the Institut national d'etudes démographiques (INED), Paris, and the World Bank.