Chronic health effects in people exposed to arsenic via the drinking water: dose?response relationships in review

Abstract

Chronic arsenic (As) poisoning has become a world wide public health issue.Most human As exposure occurs from consumption of drinking water containing high amounts of inorganic As (iAs). In this paper, epidemiological studies conducted on the dose-response relationships between iAs exposure via the drinking water and related adverse health effects are reviewed. Before the review, the methods for evaluation of the individual As exposure are summarized and classified into two types, i.e. the methods depending on As concentration of the drinking water and the methods depending on biological monitoring for As exposure; certain methods may be applied as optimum As exposure indexes to study dose-response relationship based on various As exposure situation. Chronic effects of iAs exposure via drinking water include skin lesions, neurological effects, hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, diabetes mellitus, and malignancies including skin cancer.The skin is quiet sensitive to arsenic and skin lesions are some of the most common and earliest non-malignant effects related to chronic As exposure. The increase of prevalence in the skin lesions has been observed even at the exposure levels in the range of 0.005-0.01 mg/L As in drinking waters. Skin, lung, bladder, kidney, liver and uterus are considered as sites As-induced malignancies, and the skin is though to be perhaps the most sensitive site. Prospective studies in large area of endemic As poisoning, like Bangladesh or China, where the rate of malignancies is expected to increase within the next several decades, will help to clarify the dose-response relationship between As exposure levels and adverse health effects with enhanced accuracy.

Arsenic Carcinogenesis in the Skin

“…Individuals with documented As-BD are considered for more aggressive screening for long-term complications, especially the development of malignancies in the lung and urinary bladder [77][78][79][80]. It was indicated that As-BD started within 10 years, invasive skin cancer after 20-30 years [81], and pulmonary cancer after 30 years following the suspected arsenic exposure [76]. Therefore, the characteristic pathological and clinical features of As-BD may provide evidences of arsenic-induced cellular responses in the early stages of chemical carcinogenesis.…”

Inorganic Arsenic Activates Reduced NADPH Oxidase in Human Primary Macrophages through a Rho Kinase/p38 Kinase Pathway

“…The Journal of Immunology, 2008, 180: 6010 -6017. 3 is an environmental toxicant to which millions of humans are exposed worldwide, mainly through contaminated drinking water (1). Chronic exposure to this metalloid is associated with skin lesions (2), vascular inflammatory diseases (3), and cancers (4).…”

Biosorptive behaviour of mango leaf powder and rice husk for arsenic(III) from aqueous solutions

“…Arsenic is widely distributed in nature and released into the environment through natural sources, industrial processes and agriculture usage (Singh et al 2010;Chio et al 2009;Chatterjee et al 1995;Mandal et al 1996;Duker et al 2005;Tapio and Grosche 2006). Continued ingestion of arsenic for a long period leads to chronic arsenic poisoning; acute poisoning typically include vomiting, oesophageal and abdominal pain, diarrhoea, skin lesions, cancer of the skin, lungs, urinary bladder, and kidney, as well as other skin changes such as pigmentation changes and thickening (hyperkeratosis), black foot disease (Rahman et al 2005;Atkins et al 2007;Yoshida et al 2004;Chaudhuri et al 2008;Pandey et al 2002;Jack et al 2003;Duker et al 2005;Tseng et al 2005). Because of high impact on human health even at low concentrations several regulating agencies set their maximum contamination level of arsenic in drinking water values e.g., World Health Organization as 0.01 mg/l, French as 0.015 mg/l, United State Environmental Protection Agency as 0.01 mg/l, Vietnam and Mexico as 0.05 mg/l, European Union as 0.01 mg/l, Australia as 0.007 mg/l, Germany as 0.01 mg/l, Bangladesh and India as 0.05 mg/l (Anawar et al 2003;Choong et al 2007;Maji et al 2008;Zhu et al 2009;Barakat and Sahiner 2008;Mohapatra et al 2008).…”