Food consumption is an important route of human exposure to pesticides and industrial pollutants. Average dietary exposures to 37 pollutants were calculated for the whole United States population and for children under age 12 years by combining contaminant data with food consumption data and summing across food types. Pollutant exposures were compared to benchmark concentrations, which are based on standard toxicological references, for cancer and noncancer health effects. Average food ingestion exposures for the whole population exceeded benchmark concentrations for arsenic, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, dioxins, and polychlorinated biphenyls, when nondetects were assumed to be equal to zero. For each of these pollutants, exposure through fish consumption accounts for a large percentage of food exposures. Exposure data for childhood age groups indicated that benchmark concentrations for the six identified pollutants are exceeded by the time age 12 years is reached. The methods used in this analysis could underestimate risks from childhood exposure, as children have a longer time to develop tumors and they may be more susceptible to carcinogens; therefore, there may be several additional contaminants of concern. In addition, several additional pollutants exceeded benchmark levels when nondetects were assumed to be equal to one half the detection limit. Uncertainties in exposure levels may be large, primarily because of numerous samples with contaminant levels below detection limits.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 8. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 December 2014.
All research outputs
#6,301,582
of 33,059,767 outputs
Outputs from Environmental Research
#2,919
of 9,947 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#10,637
of 55,040 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Environmental Research
#13
of 27 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 33,059,767 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 80th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 9,947 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 19.5. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 55,040 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 80% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 27 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 51% of its contemporaries.
