Acrylamide Harms DNA

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Acrylamide Harms DNA JoAnn Guest Jun 20, 2003 22:20 PDT

Acrylamide Harms DNA

 

But Jury Still Out on Danger of Common Food Chemical

 

By Daniel DeNoon

WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD

on Tuesday, June 17, 2003

 

June 17, 2003 -- Acrylamide -- a common cancer-causing chemical --

damages DNA, a new study shows. But just how dangerous is it?

 

 

That's the million-dollar question -- but there's no final answer. A

year after Swedish researchers first found high levels of acrylamide in

common foods, its true danger remains unknown.

 

 

Acrylamide is in treated water. It's in coffee and cosmetics and

cigarette smoke. It abounds in potato chips and french fries. It mayeven

be made by your own body. It causes cancer in lab mice -- and " probably "

causes cancer in humans, the World Health Organization cautiously

concludes. It also can cause brain and nerve damage.

 

 

New lab studies reported in the June 18 issue of the Journal of the

National Cancer Institute find that acrylamide -- at very low

concentrations -- causes a wide range of genetic mutations. Ahmad

Besaratinia, PhD, and Gerd P. Pfeifer, PhD, City of Hope National

Medical Center, Duarte, Calif., found that acrylamide doubled mutation

rates in a special gene placed inside mouse cells.

 

 

" The most significant thing we found was the mechanism by which

acrylamide exerts its [cancer-causing] effect, " Besaratinia tells WebMD.

" Most chemicals that cause cancer have these characteristics. They

interact with the DNA molecule and bind to specific sites on

cancer-related genes. "

 

 

But Besaratinia warns that this model doesn't prove anything about

humans. He's now looking at human cells to see whether acrylamide causes

mutations in genes linked to cancer.

 

 

Looking for a Needle in a Needlestack

 

 

Margareta Törnqvist, PhD, University of Stockholm, Sweden, is a member

of the scientific team that first found that high-heat cooking causes

acrylamide to form in foods. In an editorial accompanying the

Besaratinia and Pfeifer study, she and colleague Fredrik Granath, PhD,

note that the average person has a blood level of acrylamide five times

lower than the concentrations used in the study.

 

 

" This study looked at a low dosage of acrylamide, but to show what is

really going on you need to use really, really low doses, " Törnqvist

tells WebMD. " They are not down in the doses we are exposed to through

our diets. "

 

 

Since nearly everybody is exposed to acrylamide, you'd think it would be

easy to tell whether acrylamide in food causes cancer or brain damage.

But that's just the problem. Since everybody is exposed to acrylamide,

it's hard to compare exposed to non-exposed people.

 

 

That's why the new study is important, Törnqvist says. More lab and

animal experiments are needed to tease out the actual risk posed by

acrylamide. Right now, her best guess is that 1% of lifetime cancer risk

is due to acrylamide in the diet.

 

 

" We have to live with it, " she says. " Of course, we should try to reduce

our intake. And maybe we need to think of new ways to limit this risk. "

 

 

Limits and Lunch

 

 

Acrylamide is used to treat drinking water. The U.S. EPA says that a cup

of water should contain no more than 0.12 micrograms of acrylamide.

That's a lot less than you'd find in common foods. According to a June

2002 study by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest

(CSPI):

 

Three ounces of baked Ore Ida French Fries have 28 micrograms of

acrylamide.

One ounce of Cheerios has 7 micrograms.

A large 6.2-ounce order of McDonald's French Fries has 82 micrograms.

A jumbo 6.2-ounce order of KFC Potato Wedges has 52 micrograms.

 

This month, CSPI urged the FDA to limit the amount of acrylamide in

common foods. They suggested that since the amount that causes cancer is

not known, the FDA should require foods to have no more acrylamide than

is found in most other foods of the same kind.

 

 

For example, most dry cereals have 71 parts per billion (ppb) of

acrylamide. But Wheatena Toasted Wheat Cereal has 1,057 ppb of

acrylamide. The CSPI says the manufacturer should be required to bring

this down to at least 71 ppb until more is known about acrylamide risk.

 

webmd.com/content/article/66/79891.htm

--

 

 

SOURCES: Journal of the National Cancer Institute Journal, June 18,

2003. Ahmad Besaratinia, PhD, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope

National Medical Center, Duarte, Calif. Margareta Törnqvist, PhD,

University of Stockholm, Sweden. Center for Science in the Public

Interest news releases, June 4, 2003 and June 22, 2002.

 

 

© 2003 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

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