If you have seen or read the recent reports about tests that found arsenic in apple juice, you're probably wondering whether it may be threatening to juice revellers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a statement making an attempt to assure patrons that almost all of the arsenic in juices and other foods was of the so-called "organic" form, that the agency said was "essentially harmless." But recent scientific proof and public info issued by other Fed agency puts doubt on that allegation.

Concerns about arsenic in juices heightened after Mehmet Oz, M.D, a heart surgeon and host of The Dr. Oz Show aired a slice saying findings of lab tests he commissioned that found 10 of three dozen apple juice samples tested contained total arsenic levels surpassing the Ten parts per bill ( ppb ) Fed. limit for total arsenic levels in public drinking water.

The Oz test findings are just the latest of several tests for arsenic in juice conducted over the past three years. As we reported formerly, tests by university analysts and other laboratories say they have spotted levels of total arsenic in apple juices that were up to three to five times higher than the 10 ppb public drinking water limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ), which is a limit that the FDA imposes for bottled water. The FDA doesn't set such limits for arsenic in other drinks, though in a Sept. 18 letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer has called upon the agency to do so.

As an element of our continuing series of stories about contamination of food and consumer goods with lead, cadmium and other heavy metals, we are at present investigating the risks posed by diet exposures to arsenic and will be bringing you more information shortly on this problem and what you can do to cut back your risks of exposure. Meanwhile, here are some facts to help cut thru confusion about the types of arsenic you could be exposed to in what you drink and eat :

What precisely is arsenic?
Arsenic is a metalloid, meaning it shares properties of metals and non-metals. It can be found in rock and soil, with trace amounts in some areas and heavy concentrations in others. Keep in mind that "naturally occurring" arsenic doesn't translate into "harmless." On the list of 275 unsafe substances at noxious waste sites, the Fed Agency for Poisonous Substances and Illness Registry ranks arsenic as number one, based on hazards to folks living around those sites.

When arsenic leaches from such rock formations into groundwater, it can contaminate water utilized for drinking and irrigating crops. But arsenic has also been employed for many commercial purposes. For years arsenic-containing insecticides were widely used in orchards, vineyards and cotton fields. Although the use of lead arsenate insecticides was banned in the U.S. In the late 1980s, arsenic remains in the soil, so past use of those insecticides can lead to contamination of fruit now grown in those orchards. Concerns also have been raised about the probable continuing use of arsenical insecticides in other countries, including China, which now supplies the bulk of apple concentrate used in the U.S.

Arsenic also has been an ingredient in a wood preservative, chromated copper arsenate ( CCA ), utilized in pressure-treated lumber ordinarily found in outside decks or children's playground gear. Though CCA was banned for almost all U.S. Residential use in 2003, it still is used industrially and can even contribute to arsenic in groundwater when recycled as mulch. Through all of these routes and more, arsenic can enter the pecking order.

What's the most important difference between organic and inorganic arsenic?
Arsenic can combine with other elements to create compounds that are separated into two forms : inorganic arsenic compounds and organic arsenic compounds. When used to explain arsenic, the word "organic" has nothing do with the term that is on labeling for foods that meet USDA authorized organic standards.

When arsenic ties to elements such as sulfur, oxygen and chlorine, it forms inorganic arsenic compounds. Inorganic arsenic is a known human carcinogen and is the form found in drinking water, lead-arsenate insecticides and CCA.

Organic arsenic compounds are made when arsenic ties to molecules containing carbon. Marine animal can contain an organic sort of arsenic called arsenobetaine, which is usually considered non-harmful to humans. But a lot less is understood about the health effects in humans of other sorts of organic arsenic, and products containing them have raised enough concerns they are no longer being sold. EPA in 2006 took steps to stop the utilization of herbicides containing organic arsenic due to concern about their potential to transform into more toxic inorganic arsenic in the ground and then contaminate drinking water.