Cancer incidence and soil arsenic exposure in a historical gold mining area in Victoria, Australia: A geospatial analysis

Abstract

Soil and mine waste around historical gold mining sites may have elevated arsenic concentrations. Recent evidence suggests some systemic arsenic absorption by residents in the goldfields region of Victoria, Australia. Victorian Cancer Registry and geochemical data were accessed for an ecological geographical correlation study, 1984-2003. Spatial empirical Bayes smoothing was applied when estimating standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) for cancers in 61 statistical local areas. The derived soil arsenic exposure metric ranged from 1.4 to 1857 mg/kg. Spatial autoregressive modelling detected increases in smoothed SIRs for all cancers of 0.05 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.02-0.08) and 0.04 (0.01-0.07) per 2.7-fold increase in the natural log-transformed exposure metric for males and females, respectively, in more socioeconomically disadvantaged areas; for melanoma in males (0.05 (0.01-0.08) adjusted for disadvantage) and females (0.05 (0.02-0.09) in disadvantaged areas). Excess risks were estimated for all cancers (relative risk 1.21 (95% CI, 1.15-1.27) and 1.08 (1.03-1.14)), and melanoma (1.52 (1.25-1.85) and 1.29 (1.08-1.55)), for males and females, respectively, in disadvantaged areas in the highest quintile of the exposure metric relative to the lowest. Our findings suggest small but significant increases in past cancer risk associated with increasing soil arsenic in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas and demonstrate the robustness of this geospatial approach.

Environmental arsenic contamination and its health effects in a historic gold mining area of the Mangalur greenstone belt of Northeastern Karnataka, India

“…Unlike contaminated groundwater, we are unaware of residential human exposure to arsenic-contaminated soil leading to overt arsenicosis, notably dermatological symptoms as in the present study. Reports have been published though on increased As biomarker levels with soil exposure [17] as well as contaminated soil being associated with decreased weeks of gestation for newborns [44] or significant increased risks of multiple types of cancer [45,46]. …”

Spatial epidemiology of cancer: a review of data sources, methods and risk factors

“…Thus, the data must be sufficiently disaggregated to allow the researcher to perform the analysis, to obtain statistically robust results, and at the same time not compromising the individual confidentiality (Pearce et al, 2012).…”

Synthesis and arsenic adsorption performances of ferric-based layered double hydroxide with α-alanine intercalation

“…Besides, anthropogenic sources like mining activities, combustion of fossil fuels, and use of arsenic pesticides produce additional negative impact. Arsenic pollution, as a worldwide problem, has been reported in a lot of countries and regions including the USA [7], Canada [8], Mexico [9], Argentina [10], Australia [11], Japan [12], China [13], India [1], Bangladesh [14] and so on [15]. Accumulation of evidences for chronic toxicological effects of arsenic in drinking water leads the World Health Organization [16], European Union [17], and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [18] to lower the regulatory limits and the maximum contaminant level of arsenic in drinking water from 50 to 10 μg·L 1 .…”