New Data Eases Concerns over Arsenic Content of California Wine

Refuting earlier claims that California wines allegedly contain “dangerously
high” levels of arsenic, a new study has concluded that inorganic
arsenic in blush, white and red California wines “does not represent a
health risk for consumers.” Dennis Paustenbach, et al., “Analysis of Total
Arsenic Content in California Wines and Comparison to Various Health
Risk Criteria,” American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, January
2016. Using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to characterize
the arsenic content of 101 wines produced or bottled in California,
the authors evidently found that blush wines contained the greatest total
arsenic concentration, followed by white and then red wines.

In particular, the study tested 28 wines singled out in media reports
as exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum
contaminant level for arsenic in drinking water of 10 μg/L. But even
though these wines contained more total arsenic than randomly selected
products, “no more than 0.3% of California wines (if any) may contain
arsenic concentrations greater than the 100 μg/L guideline” that is used
for arsenic concentration in wine.

“Chronic daily intake of arsenic as a result of wine consumption was estimated
to account for a small fraction (< 8.3%) of a typical adult’s dietary
arsenic intake, indicating that wine consumption is not a significant
source of total arsenic exposure,” state the authors, who will also present
their findings at the Society of Toxicology 55th Annual Meeting slated for
March 13-17, 2016, in New Orleans, Louisiana. “These results indicate
that the presence of arsenic in wine does not represent a health risk for
consumers.” Additional details about a previous study of arsenic in wine
as well as a lawsuit appear in Issues 559, 562 and 581 of this Update.

Issue 595