Aflatoxins risk assessment

SUMMARY OF THE OUTCOME OF THE RISK ASSESSMENT BY THE INTERNATIONAL AGENCY FOR RESEARCH ON CANCER AND THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION FOR AFLATOXINS, OCHRATOXIN A, AND PATULIN IN FOODS FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION"... 

Risk assessment might be viewed simply as a means of organizing and analyzing all available scientific information that bears on the question at hand. If we are interested in understanding the nature and size of the health risk associated with, for example, aflatoxin in peanut products or trichloroethylene in drinking water, there are three types of information that must be evaluated. 

Note that some of the risk information is actuarial (based on statistical data, typically collected and organized by insurance companies) and some of it has been derived from the type of risk assessment discussed in this book (chloroform in chlorinated drinking water, aflatoxin in peanut products). While the uncertainties associated with the figures in Table 9 are much greater for some risks than for others (not a trivial problem in presentation of risk data), such a presentation, it would seem, is very helpful to people who are trying to acquire some understanding of extremely low probability events, of the order of one in one million. 

Summary Primary hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common cancers in the world and is prevalent on the continents of Africa and Asia. A number of classical epidemiological studies have determined that the exposure status of people to aflatoxin B1 is an important risk factor in the etiology of liver cancer. However, these studies have only relied upon the criteria of presumptive intake data, rather than information obtained from quantitative analyses of food samples, biological fluids and from people exposed to aflatoxin. Information obtained by monitoring exposed individuals for specific DNA adducts and metabolites will define the pharmacokinetics of aflatoxin B1 in people, thereby facilitating risk assessments. Preliminary data, reported here, support the concept that measurement of the major, rapidly excised AFB-N7-Gua adduct in urine and quantification of the more persistent aflatoxin albumin adduct are appropriate dosimeters for estimating exposure status and possibly risk in individuals consuming this mycotoxin. 

Liu, Y. and Wu, F. 2010. Global burden of aflatoxin-induced hepatoceUular carcinoma A risk assessment. Envirort Health Perspect. 118(6) 818-824. 

Sterigmatocystin is very acutely toxic to humans and animals and hke aflatoxins acts as a hepatocarcinogen. According to the lARC, it is classified as a Group 2B carcinogen to humans. As one of the priorities in the dietary risk assessment, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) identified the need to gather a more complete set of data on the occurrence of this mycotoxin in foods. Maximum levels in foods are not currently set due to a lack of data from which to assess the associated health risks. 

Hie artificial sweetener, saccharin, and the secondary mold product, aflatoxin Bj, are present in many foods consumed by humans. Both chemicals produce cancer in rats. For this reason, they have aroused concern among scientists and the public as to the carcinogenic risk that they pose to humans. A comparison of these two chemicals reveals striking contrasts in potency, metabolism, mechanism-of-action, and experimental approach to assessing metabolism. These contrasts are examined in detail to illustrate the importance of metabolism in safety evaluation. 

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