Is Colon Cancer Mortality Related to Arsenic Exposure?

Abstract

Arsenic has been well documented as the major risk factor for blackfoot disease (BFD), a unique peripheral vascular disease that was endemic to the southwestern coast of Taiwan, where residents consumed high-arsenic artesian well water for more than 50 yr. Chronic arsenic exposure was also reported to be associated with increased mortality attributed to colon cancer. A tap-water supply system was implemented in the early 1960s in the BFD-endemic areas. Artesian well water was no longer used for drinking and cooking after the mid-1970s. The objective of this study was to determine whether colon cancer mortality decreased after the improvement of the drinking-water supply system through elimination of arsenic ingestion from artesian well water. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for colon cancer were calculated for the BFD-endemic area for the years 1971-2006. Results showed that mortality due to colon cancer declined in males, but not in females, gradually after the improvement of drinking-water supply system. Based on the reversibility criterion, the association between arsenic exposure and colon cancer incidence is likely to be causal for males but not females. The possibility that our results may be due to chance should be considered; however, gender-specific differences in arsenic metabolism may be a critical factor.

Arsenic in tube well water in Bangladesh: health and economic impacts and implications for arsenic mitigation

“…Reductions in arsenic-related mortality would be noted within about 40 years, as suggested by observations in similarly exposed populations in Chile and, Taiwan (China), where arsenic-related cancer mortality started to decline gradually about 20 or 25 years after measures to reduce exposure were initiated and coronary heart disease mortality declined even faster. 24,[34][35][36][37] The current generation may face the latent effects of lifetime exposure to arsenic even after switching to a safe water source, but for future generations, arsenic-attributable disease and death would be a thing of the past. If, on the other hand, population-wide chronic arsenic exposure is allowed to continue unchecked or to worsen as the population grows and installs more private tube wells, future generations will be saddled with enormous health and productivity costs.…”

“…[22][23][24][25][26][27] We contemplate three scenarios for population exposure to arsenic in concentrations > 50 µg/L: in the first and worst, exposure is constant beginning in 2000; in the second and best, exposure has been eliminated by 2010; in the third and most realistic, exposure is reduced to 13% by 2010 (as found in MICS 2009) and completely eliminated by 2030. How will these exposure scenarios affect today's children in the future?…”

“…2 Studies on chronic arsenic exposure in utero and in early childhood suggest an increased risk of fetal loss, infant death, reduced birth weight and impaired cognitive function in children, as well as significantly higher risks of impaired lung function, renal cancer and death from lung cancer, lung disease and acute myocardial infarction later in life. [22][23][24][25][26] Since an entire generation has now grown up exposed to arsenic, some children will become "arsenic orphans" as their caretakers succumb to arsenic-related diseases. These children may also be exposed to arsenic themselves, which would perpetuate the cycle of arsenic-related disease.…”

Inuteroarsenic exposure and epigenome-wide associations in placenta, umbilical artery, and human umbilical vein endothelial cells

“…3 Increased mortality from acute myocardial infarction and cancers of the bladder, kidney, lung, and liver have also been reported from this population decades after the exposure declined. 4,5 Of public health interest is the ability of early life arsenic exposure, particularly exposures occurring in utero, to increase disease risk and susceptibility to adverse health conditions later in life. For example, animal models support the involvement of transplacental arsenic exposure in the development and progression of atherosclerosis, consistent with human studies linking early life exposure and cardiovascular disease.…”

Preservation Artifacts and Loss Pattern of Arsenic: A Case Study from Highly Contaminated Location in Central-East India

“…Yu Chen and colleagues add to the evidence that arsenic in water increases mortality from cardiovascular disease with the findings of their prospective cohort study in Bangladesh [4]. Ingestion of inorganic arsenic in drinking water causes cancer of the skin, bladder, lung, liver, and kidney [5]. Inorganic arsenic species arsenite [As(III)] and arsenate [As(V)] predominate in natural water [6].…”