Re: Bromine in Foods

[Guest guest]

As I understand it, Bromine is added to flour as a bleaching agent and

bromated oil is added to soda as a clarifying agent. I think it is used

in food processing a lot.

Irene

At 09:53 AM 3/10/2006, you wrote:

Dr.

Jane Teas has just sent us a couple more articles: one on bromine

in seafoods and the other on iodine and breast cancer in rats. I've

posted them both to the files.

The bromine article had some interesting

comments on bromine in foods, including a chart giving the average

amounts found by three different researchers in the following

foods: grains (rice and wheat), potatoes, pulses, vegetables,

fruits, fungi, meat, eggs, milk, fish (sea and shell), and algae.

It stated that Br contents should be high in

some types of algae (especially sea tangle), sea shellfish, and possibly

cereals. Fish from the sea (especially shellfish) have high levels,

whereas fish from fresh water (rivers or lakes) do not.

The high values for grains and some other

seeds (e.g., soybeans) are probably due to fumigation with a

Br-containing agent, such as methyl bromide. Fumigation is not

needed with locally produced and consumed grains. So you find the

most fumigation with grains sent large distances or used in big

cities. I don't know how much US grains use Br fumigants, or

whether flours and breads contain them.

The study measured Br in people (Japanese and

Chinese) by urine levels and, among other things, found the levels higher

in women than men. One possible explanation, they suggested, is

that some hair products contain bromide salts. However, they did

not believe that the salt would be able to penetrate intact skin.

Here is the info on the article source:

BromineUrinaryExcretion.doc

Zhang, 2001. Urinary bromide levels probably dependent to intake of foods such as sea algae.

Zoe