Aflatoxin M1 and Risks of Liver Cancer. S. H. Henry, J. A. Pennington, T. B. Whitaker, P. J. P. Verger, and F. X. Bosch; US Food and Drug Administration, DC, National Institute of Health, US Department of Agriculture, NC, Inst. Nat’l. Research Agron., France, and Catalan Inst. Oncol., Spain
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently evaluated the human health risk associated with consumption of milk contaminated with aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) at two maximum levels of 0.05 or 0.5 ug/kg. The aflatoxins are produced by Aspergillus species; AFM1 may be found contaminating milk or milk products obtained from livestock that has ingested contaminated feed (primarily peanut meal, corn and cottonseed meal). Aflatoxin B1, the most potent aflatoxin, has been demonstrated to be a liver carcinogen in sensitive animal species; consumption of aflatoxins has been associated with human liver cancer. One approach used estimated intake on the basis of mean AFM1 concentration in milk for all samples, for all samples containing less than 0.5 ug/kg, and for all samples containing less than 0.05 ug/kg for a given population, multiplied by the milk consumption of the population of interest. Another approach was to generate distribution curves for regional data (WHO GEMS/Food regional diets) for the concentrations of AFM1 in milk. Estimates for carcinogenic potency for AFM1 were generated for populations with and without hepatitis B and C (major risk factors for liver cancer). These potencies were then combined with estimates of intake from the European regional diet and projected cancer risks estimated for the two proposed maximum levels. The risk of liver cancer associated with AFM1 consumption was so low as to be unmeasurable in populations with a low incidence of hepatitis B (such as European populations) even in heavy consumers of milk products.
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