tel: +46 18 17 55 00, fax: +46 18 10 58 48
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National
Food Administration, Box 622, SE-751 26 Uppsala, tel: +46 18 17 55 00, fax: +46 18 10 58 48 |
Epidemiological studies in man have not shown a correlation between exposure to acrylamide and increased cancer rate. These studies have been criticised because the number of studied persons was too low considering the expected effect.
Two long-term studies in rat have shown a substantial increase of tumours in different organs when the animals were exposed to acrylamide in drinking water. Similar studies have been made in mice. The lowest effective dose was 2 mg/kg body weight and day .
In the studies with rat the increase of tumours was most evident in specific organs, e.g. mammary gland, uterus, adrenal gland, scrotal mesothelium. In mice there was an increase of lung and skin tunours. These cancer studies have been used for the assessment of the risk of cancer in humans due to acrylamide exposure.
It should be noted that the genotoxic studies have indicated that there is no threshold value for the risk of cancer induced by acrylamide, i.e. there is no dose of acrylamide so low that it does not increase the risk of cancer. In making these assessments it is assumed that man and rat have the same sensitivity for cancer induction by acrylamide.
The results of the risk assessments are somewhat different since they are based on different mathematical models. By consumption of 1 microgram acrylamide/kg body weight and day the lifetime risk for cancer has been calculated to
These figures for risk should be compared to the total lifetime risk for cancer in Sweden, i.e. one person of three will have cancer during his/her life. For mostly unknown reasons 45 000 Swedes get cancer every year (most cases at high ages). It is assumed that a third of all cases of cancer, are due to the diet. For comparison one can mention other assessments of lifetime cancer risks: 3 per 1000 for ionizing radiation (general background excluding radon), 0.01 per 1000 for aflatoxin (a fungus toxin found in e.g. peanuts) at the EU maximum level, and this last figure is also representative for most carcinogens found in food.