Dietary exposure to arsenic: The main seafoods contributing to inorganic arsenic dietary exposure (>5%) from food alone were prawns (52%) and marine fish (14%). Although other seafood such as crabs, mussels and oysters are significant sources of inorganic arsenic per kilogram of food, the relatively small consumption levels of these foods means they do not make a significant contribution to mean inorganic arsenic dietary exposure for the whole population (ANZFA 1999b).
Dietary exposure estimates for high consumers of single food commodity groups indicate that high fish consumers could receive up to 4 per cent of the PTDI for inorganic arsenic, and that high consumers of molluscs and crustacea could receive up to 6 per cent and 18 per cent of the PTDI for inorganic arsenic respectively, assuming that the inorganic content of seafood is 6 per cent of the total arsenic content and assuming that these consumers eat molluscs and crustacea every day over a lifetime (ANZFA 1999b).
