Arsenic Chicken

Lasky's data came from 5,000 chicken samples collected over seven years by the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service. Based on the amount of arsenic found in the chicken tissue, the data shows that the average person ingests 3.6 to 5.2 micrograms of inorganic arsenic per day from chicken alone. Inorganic arsenic is classified as a carcinogen, and some cancers—such as skin, respiratory, and bladder cancer—have been seen at exposures of ten to forty micrograms per day. But Lasky says that even someone who eats at the very high end of the scale (about a pound a day, she says) is "still within the tolerable limits" for arsenic exposure set by the World Health Organization.

image: Compassion Over Killing

For example, officials might consider rethinking the allowable levels of arsenic from other sources. "If we're taking in more from one source or another than we previously thought, that really leaves us…fewer options in terms of the other sources of arsenic exposure," says Lasky. "Knowing that people are taking in more arsenic through food may mean that there's a need to lower the amounts taken in through water."

Lasky doesn't think her study should cause anyone to change their eating habits, but those who are concerned can switch to organic chicken, which is not fed arsenic. She also pointed out that her study is a starting point and that further studies are needed: "From what I gather, there's very little known about the effects of cooking, digestion and metabolism on the arsenic that is in chicken. And that…could lead to a variety of studies. This is a new issue. We weren't aware of it before. And any time a report comes out with new information… our stock answer in science—but it's a very justified answer—is that it needs further exploration."

This research was published in the January, 2004 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, and was funded by the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service.