Ingested arsenic, characteristics of well water consumption and risk of different histological types of lung cancer in northeastern Taiwan

Arsenic in drinking and lung cancer mortality in Taiwan

“…Wu et al (1989) conducted an ecologic analysis and identified villages with median arsenic levels in well water above 0.30 ppm as high risk areas, which is compatible with the findings in our study. Our finding of additional hot spots in the northeastern areas was also compatible with a study conducted by Chen et al (2010) recently, in which excess risks were observed at levels above 0.100 mg/L, but not levels below 0.100 mg/L. A previous study using the same approach as in the current study to analyze data on 138 villages in the southwestern Taiwan found that arsenic levels above 0.64 mg/L were associated with a significant increase in the mortality of lung cancer in both genders, but no significant effects were observed at lower levels (Guo, 2004).…”

“…Therefore, the observation on women suggested that the dose-response relationship was not linear. This is similar to the observation in a previous study which found excess risk at levels between 0.100 and 0.300 mg/L, but no apparent increased risk between 0.010 and 0.100 mg/L (Chen et al, 2010) and compatible with a Japanese study which obtained measurements for each participant individually but did not find an increase of lung cancer mortality at arsenic levels below 1 ppm (Tsuda et al, 1995).…”

“…In fact, several studies in Taiwan have observed a synergistic effect of arsenic exposure and cigarette smoking on lung cancer (Chen et al, 2004(Chen et al, , 2010, and the smoking rate was much higher in men than in women among Taiwanese. A similar pattern of the gender difference was observed in transitional cell carcinoma of the kidney in a previous study in Taiwan (Guo et al, 1997): an increased in the risk was observed for arsenic levels above 0.64 ppm in both gender, but the increase associated with levels between 0.32 and 0.64 ppm was observed in men only.…”

Reduction in arsenic intake from water has different impacts on lung cancer and bladder cancer in an arseniasis endemic area in Taiwan

“…Subsequently, researchers have shown that in addition to BFD, many types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes are all related to chronic arsenic intoxication via intake of artesian well water [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. These associations have been confirmed through meticulous work to measure the concentration of arsenic in water from thousands of artesian wells in the BFDEA and quantification of daily water intake from residential wells for each studied resident in the area by home visits and interviews with questionnaires.…”

Lung Cancer: Mechanisms of Carcinogenesis

“…A Taiwanese study demonstrated the synergy for the squamous and small cell but not for the adenocarcinoma of the lung [ 183 ]. The same group demonstrated that arsenic increased the metabolism of a tobacco-specifi c nitrosamine, 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK), via activation of CYP2a in mouse liver, and the metabolism of another tobacco carcinogen, benzo[a]pyrene, by enhancement of CYP1A1 expression and activity via the AH receptor with a mechanism involving oxidative stress, in a human adenocarcinoma cell line [ 184 , 185 ].…”