Background: Inorganic arsenic (iAs) causes cancer and possibly other adverse health outcomes. Arsenic-based drugs are permitted in poultry production; however, the contribution of chicken consumption to iAs intake is unknown.Objectives: We sought to characterize the arsenic species profile in chicken meat and estimate bladder and lung cancer risk associated with consuming chicken produced with arsenic-based drugs.Methods: Conventional, antibiotic-free, and organic chicken samples were collected from grocery stores in 10 U.S. metropolitan areas from December 2010 through June 2011. We tested 116 raw and 142 cooked chicken samples for total arsenic, and we determined arsenic species in 65 raw and 78 cooked samples that contained total arsenic at ≥ 10 µg/kg dry weight.Results: The geometric mean (GM) of total arsenic in cooked chicken meat samples was 3.0 µg/kg (95% CI: 2.5, 3.6). Among the 78 cooked samples that were speciated, iAs concentrations were higher in conventional samples (GM = 1.8 µg/kg; 95% CI: 1.4, 2.3) than in antibiotic-free (GM = 0.7 µg/kg; 95% CI: 0.5, 1.0) or organic (GM = 0.6 µg/kg; 95% CI: 0.5, 0.8) samples. Roxarsone was detected in 20 of 40 conventional samples, 1 of 13 antibiotic-free samples, and none of the 25 organic samples. iAs concentrations in roxarsone-positive samples (GM = 2.3 µg/kg; 95% CI: 1.7, 3.1) were significantly higher than those in roxarsone-negative samples (GM = 0.8 µg/kg; 95% CI: 0.7, 1.0). Cooking increased iAs and decreased roxarsone concentrations. We estimated that consumers of conventional chicken would ingest an additional 0.11 µg/day iAs (in an 82-g serving) compared with consumers of organic chicken. Assuming lifetime exposure and a proposed cancer slope factor of 25.7 per milligram per kilogram of body weight per day, this increase in arsenic exposure could result in 3.7 additional lifetime bladder and lung cancer cases per 100,000 exposed persons.Conclusions: Conventional chicken meat had higher iAs concentrations than did conventional antibiotic-free and organic chicken meat samples. Cessation of arsenical drug use could reduce exposure and the burden of arsenic-related disease in chicken consumers.

Environmental context. Although organoarsenic compounds occur in marine organisms at high concentrations, the origin and role of these compounds is unknown. Arsenic-containing lipids (arsenolipids) are newly discovered compounds in fish. We identify a range of arsenolipids in algae and propose that algae are the origin of these unusual arsenic compounds in marine ecosystems.Abstract. Fourteen arsenolipids, including 11 new compounds, were identified and quantified in two species of brown algae, Wakame (Undaria pinnatifida) and Hijiki (Hizikia fusiformis), by high resolution mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Both algal species contained arsenosugar-phospholipids as the major type of arsenolipid, and arsenic-hydrocarbons were also significant components, particularly in Hijiki. The origin of the various arsenolipids, and the possible significance of their relative quantities, is briefly discussed. Arsenic-containing organic compounds are abundant in marine ecosystems where they are thought to play a pivotal role in the cycling and detoxification of potentially toxic inorganic arsenic (arsenate) present in seawater. [1] Although most of the arsenic compounds identified so far have been water-soluble species, the early work on arsenic marine chemistry focussed on lipidsoluble compounds, so called arsenolipids. [2][3][4] Identification of these arsenolipids proved difficult, however, and it was not until 1988 that an arsenolipid was first rigorously characterised and identified as an arsenosugar-containing phospholipid [5] (see Table 1, compound As-PL958).Subsequently, the range of naturally occurring arsenolipids has been extended with the discovery of arsenic-containing fatty acids in fish oils, [6] and arsenic-containing hydrocarbons in fish oils, [7] fish liver, [8] sashimi tuna [9] and fish meal. [10] The origin of these compounds was presumed to be algae. We report the arsenolipid profiles of two species of brown algae, determined mainly by high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS), and we briefly discuss the possible biosynthetic origin of these unusual compounds.Samples of Wakame (Undaria pinnatifida, 40 AE 3 mg As g À1 dry mass) and Hijiki (Hizikia fusiformis, 113 AE 5 mg As g À1 dry mass), A obtained from a Japanese commercial source, were extracted with a mixture of chloroform and methanol using a modification B of the classical procedure of Bligh and Dyer. [11] The lipid fraction containing 6.7 % (Wakame) and 1.6 % (Hijiki)A Determination of arsenic contents. Total arsenic analyses were performed on portions of the dry powders, extracts or combined fractions from the silica columns by ICP-MS (Agilent 7500ce) in helium collision cell mode following a microwave-assisted acid mineralisation step. The method was validated by analysis of reference material NIES No. 9 Sargasso (certified As content 115 AE 5 mg As g À1 ); we obtained 116 AE 2 mg As g À1 (n ¼ 3). BExtraction and purification of arsenolipid...

A bit fishy: Six arsenolipids have been isolated from cod‐liver oil and identified by HPLC and mass spectrometry as a series of arsenic‐containing long‐chain fatty acids (for example, see picture). These fatty acids account for about 20 % of the total arsenolipid content of cod‐liver oil.

Arsenic-containing hydrocarbons have been identified for the first time as natural components of fish oil.

We report studies on the variability in human metabolism of an oxo-arsenosugar involving the ingestion of a chemically synthesized arsenosugar and quantitative determination of the arsenic metabolites in urine and serum by HPLC coupled with arsenic-selective mass spectrometric detection (ICPMS, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry). The total, four-day, urinary excretion of arsenic for six volunteers ranged widely from ca. 4-95%. The arsenic metabolites present in the urine also showed great variability: high arsenic excretion was accompanied by almost complete biotransformation of the ingested oxo-arsenosugar into a multitude of metabolites (>10), whereas the subjects that excreted low amounts of arsenic produced low quantities of metabolites relative to unchanged oxo-arsenosugar and its thio-analogue. Major arsenic urinary metabolites were dimethylarsinate (DMA) and possible intermediates in the degradation of arsenosugar to DMA, namely, dimethylarsinoylethanol (DMAE) and dimethylarsinoylacetate (DMAA) present both as their oxo- and thio-analogues. Thio-DMAE and thio-DMAA were also found in blood serum indicating that these species were formed in the liver rather than on storage of the urine in the bladder. The large variability in the way individuals metabolize arsenosugars has implications for risk assessment of arsenic intake from seafood.