Prolonged exposure to arsenic in UK private water supplies: toenail, hair and drinking water concentrations

Middleton, Daniel; Watts, Michael J.; Hamilton, Elliott M.; Fletcher, Tony; Leonardi, Giovanni; Close, Rebecca; Exley, Karen; Crabbe, Helen; Polya, David A.

doi:10.1039/c6em00072j

Cited by 27 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(74 reference statements)

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“…Lastly, an independent external measure of exposure, e.g. drinking water analyte concentrations [ 28 ] could be used as an assessment criterion, but was not used in this study because of a lack of appropriate environmental data in NHANES.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing urinary flow rate, creatinine, osmolality and other hydration adjustment methods for urinary biomonitoring using NHANES arsenic, iodine, lead and cadmium data

et al. 2016

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BackgroundThere are numerous methods for adjusting measured concentrations of urinary biomarkers for hydration variation. Few studies use objective criteria to quantify the relative performance of these methods. Our aim was to compare the performance of existing methods for adjusting urinary biomarkers for hydration variation.MethodsCreatinine, osmolality, excretion rate (ER), bodyweight adjusted ER (ERBW) and empirical analyte-specific urinary flow rate (UFR) adjustment methods on spot urinary concentrations of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), non-arsenobetaine arsenic (AsIMM) and iodine (I) from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (2009–2010 and 2011–2012) were evaluated. The data were divided into a training dataset (n = 1,723) from which empirical adjustment coefficients were derived and a testing dataset (n = 428) on which quantification of the performance of the adjustment methods was done by calculating, primarily, the correlation of the adjusted parameter with UFR, with lower correlations indicating better performance and, secondarily, the correlation of the adjusted parameters with blood analyte concentrations (Pb and Cd), with higher correlations indicating better performance.ResultsOverall performance across analytes was better for Osmolality and UFR based methods. Excretion rate and ERBW consistently performed worse, often no better than unadjusted concentrations.ConclusionsOsmolality adjustment of urinary biomonitoring data provides for more robust adjustment than either creatinine based or ER or ERBW methods, the latter two of which tend to overcompensate for UFR. Modified UFR methods perform significantly better than all but osmolality in removing hydration variation, but depend on the accuracy of UFR calculations. Hydration adjustment performance is analyte-specific and further research is needed to establish a robust and consistent framework.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12940-016-0152-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing urinary flow rate, creatinine, osmolality and other hydration adjustment methods for urinary biomonitoring using NHANES arsenic, iodine, lead and cadmium data

et al. 2016

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“…7. Exposure to As in householders with PWS also depends upon the amount of water consumed, length of residency, seasonality of residency (e.g., permanent versus summer residents) as well as exposures through other routes (food, soil, air, dust) as explored in Cornwall and elsewhere in south west England [ 34 , 35 , 62 , 76 , 77 ]. Urine, hair and toenail samples taken from 127 households of the same cohort of PWS users indicated that As exposure via DW is likely a dominant source [ 34 , 35 ] as found by others [ 6 , 36 , 59 , 68 , 73 , 78 , 80 , 81 , 82 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Six percent of households failed the As PCV: the PCV and WHO guideline value [ 32 ] for As in PWS is 10 μg/L [ 32 , 33 ]. Biomonitoring of residents with PWS confirmed exposure to As through this exposure route, with high concentrations of As found in the urine, hair and toenails of some residents [ 34 , 35 ]. For PWS where DW was greater than 10 μg/L As, a strong correlation between DW As and urinary inorganic As was reported [ 34 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hazard Ranking Method for Populations Exposed to Arsenic in Private Water Supplies: Relation to Bedrock Geology

Crabbe

Fletcher

et al. 2017

IJERPH

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Approximately one million people in the UK are served by private water supplies (PWS) where main municipal water supply system connection is not practical or where PWS is the preferred option. Chronic exposure to contaminants in PWS may have adverse effects on health. South West England is an area with elevated arsenic concentrations in groundwater and over 9000 domestic dwellings here are supplied by PWS. There remains uncertainty as to the extent of the population exposed to arsenic (As), and the factors predicting such exposure. We describe a hazard assessment model based on simplified geology with the potential to predict exposure to As in PWS. Households with a recorded PWS in Cornwall were recruited to take part in a water sampling programme from 2011 to 2013. Bedrock geologies were aggregated and classified into nine Simplified Bedrock Geological Categories (SBGC), plus a cross-cutting “mineralized” area. PWS were sampled by random selection within SBGCs and some 508 households volunteered for the study. Transformations of the data were explored to estimate the distribution of As concentrations for PWS by SBGC. Using the distribution per SBGC, we predict the proportion of dwellings that would be affected by high concentrations and rank the geologies according to hazard. Within most SBGCs, As concentrations were found to have log-normal distributions. Across these areas, the proportion of dwellings predicted to have drinking water over the prescribed concentration value (PCV) for As ranged from 0% to 20%. From these results, a pilot predictive model was developed calculating the proportion of PWS above the PCV for As and hazard ranking supports local decision making and prioritization. With further development and testing, this can help local authorities predict the number of dwellings that might fail the PCV for As, based on bedrock geology. The model presented here for Cornwall could be applied in areas with similar geologies. Application of the method requires independent validation and further groundwater-derived PWS sampling on other geological formations.

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“…1-hydroxypyrene glucuronide (1-OHPG), a polycyclic-aromatic hydrocarbon metabolite associated with ESCC in some studies 8 . Toenail clippings – useful longer-term biomonitoring matrices 9 - were taken from both large toes by research assistants and stored at room temperature. Biospecimen processing and storage took place at the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) research laboratories.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cancer epidemiology fieldwork in a resource-limited setting: Experience from the western Kenya ESCCAPE esophageal cancer case-control pilot study

Menya

Oduor

Kigen

et al. 2018

Cancer Epidemiology

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Background: Case-control studies remain an important study design for aetiologic research on cancer, particularly when cohorts are not available. In addition to the potential biases inherent in this design, conducting fieldwork in settings with weak health care and information systems for cancer, such as in sub Saharan Africa, confer additional challenges which we present here with the aim to share experience to guide future studies. Methods: We undertook a hospital-based case-control study of squamous cell esophageal cancer at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, West Kenya. Cases were recruited at endoscopy and controls from hospital wards, age and gender frequency-matched to cases. Urine, toenails, blood and tumour biopsy were collected and a questionnaire administered. Results: During this pilot phase, 143 cases and 155 controls were successfully recruited. Complete questionnaire data was obtained through e-data collection. Biospecimen collection was possible with support of an already existing equipped laboratory. We introduce changes made in the main study phase, including on expansion of the control groups to allow to consideration of selection bias. Conclusions: Extra attention and funding to train and monitor data quality and biospecimen collection and reimbursement of a large group held together by strong leadership are essential. We recommend studies based on regional treatment centres with their more defined catchment areas rather than in the capital cities as referral routes in multi-level health care systems are severely attrition prone.

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Prolonged exposure to arsenic in UK private water supplies: toenail, hair and drinking water concentrations

Cited by 27 publications

References 48 publications

Assessing urinary flow rate, creatinine, osmolality and other hydration adjustment methods for urinary biomonitoring using NHANES arsenic, iodine, lead and cadmium data

Assessing urinary flow rate, creatinine, osmolality and other hydration adjustment methods for urinary biomonitoring using NHANES arsenic, iodine, lead and cadmium data

Hazard Ranking Method for Populations Exposed to Arsenic in Private Water Supplies: Relation to Bedrock Geology

Cancer epidemiology fieldwork in a resource-limited setting: Experience from the western Kenya ESCCAPE esophageal cancer case-control pilot study

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