Dataset Information

Drinking Water Arsenic Contamination, Skin Lesions, and Malignancies: A Systematic Review of the Global Evidence.

ABSTRACT: Skin lesions and cancer are known manifestations of chronic exposure to arsenic contaminated drinking water. Epidemiologic data primarily comes from regions with exposures 1-2 orders of magnitude above the current World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of 10 ?g/L. Emerging evidence indicates that more common exposures may also be related to both noncancerous and cancerous changes to the skin. In this review, we focus on the body of epidemiologic literature that encompasses exposures within the WHO guidelines, excluding studies that lacked individual exposure estimates and case reports. For skin lesions and skin cancers, 15 and 10 studies were identified that met our criteria, respectively. For skin lesions, a consistent dose-response relationship with water arsenic has been observed, with increased risk evident at low- to moderate-dose exposure. Of the larger studies of specific histologic types of skin cancers, although with differing exposure definitions, there was evidence of dose-related relationships with both basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas. The effect of arsenic exposure on skin lesion risk is likely modified by genetic variants that influence arsenic metabolism. Accumulating evidence suggests that arsenic may increase risk of skin lesions and skin cancers at levels not previously considered harmful, and that genetic factors may influence risk.

SUBMITTER: Karagas MR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4522704 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Drinking Water Arsenic Contamination, Skin Lesions, and Malignancies: A Systematic Review of the Global Evidence.

Karagas Margaret R MR Gossai Anala A Pierce Brandon B Ahsan Habibul H

Current environmental health reports 20150301 1

Skin lesions and cancer are known manifestations of chronic exposure to arsenic contaminated drinking water. Epidemiologic data primarily comes from regions with exposures 1-2 orders of magnitude above the current World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of 10 μg/L. Emerging evidence indicates that more common exposures may also be related to both noncancerous and cancerous changes to the skin. In this review, we focus on the body of epidemiologic literature that encompasses exposures within t ...[more]

PMID: 26231242

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Project description:OBJECTIVES:We investigated the association of specific serum amino acids (AAs) with the odds of arsenic-induced skin lesions (AISL) and their ability to distinguish patients with AISL from people chronically exposed to arsenic. DESIGN:Case-control study. SETTING:Three arsenic-exposed villages in Wuyuan County, Hetao Plain, Inner Mongolia, China were evaluated. PARTICIPANTS:Among the 450 residents aged 18-79 years, who were chronically exposed to arsenic via drinking water, 56 were diagnosed as having AISL (defined as cases). Another 56 participants without AISL, matched by gender and age (±1?year) from the same population, were examined as controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES AND METHODS:AA levels were determined by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry-based metabolomics analysis. Potential confounding variables were identified via a standardised questionnaire and clinical examination. Multivariable conditional logistic regression model and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between specific AAs and AISL. RESULTS:Tryptophan and phenylalanine levels were negatively associated with AISL (p<0.05). Compared with that in the first quartile, the adjusted OR of AISL in the second, third and fourth quartiles were decreased by 44%, 88% and 79% for tryptophan and 30%, 80% and 80% for phenylalanine, respectively. The combination of these two higher-level AAs showed the lowest OR for AISL (OR=0.08; 95%?CI 0.02 to 0.25; p<0.001). Furthermore, both AAs showed a moderate ability to distinguish patients with AISL from the control, with the area under the curve (AUC; 95%?CI) as 0.67 (0.57 to 0.77) for tryptophan and 0.70 (0.60 to 0.80) for phenylalanine (p<0.05). The combined pattern with AUC (95%?CI) was 0.72 (0.62 to 0.81), showing a sensitivity of 76.79% and specificity of 58.93% (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS:Specific AAs may be linked to AISL and play important roles in early AISL identification. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:NCT02235948.

Project description:To identify the causes of salinization and arsenic contamination of surface water on an embanked island (i.e., polder) in the tidal delta plain of SW Bangladesh we collected and analyzed water samples in the dry (May) and wet (October) seasons in 2012-2013. Samples were collected from rice paddies (wet season), saltwater ponds used for brine shrimp aquaculture (dry season), freshwater ponds and tidal channels (both wet and dry season), and rainwater collectors. Continuous measurements of salinity from March 2012 to February 2013 show that tidal channel water increases from ~0.15 ppt in the wet season up to ~20 ppt in the dry season. On the polder, surface water exceeds the World Health Organization drinking water guideline of 10 μg As/L in 78% of shrimp ponds and 27% of rice paddies, raising concerns that produced shrimp and rice could have unsafe levels of As. Drinking water sources also often have unsafe As levels, with 83% of tubewell and 43% of freshwater pond samples having >10 μg As/L. Water compositions and field observations are consistent with shrimp pond water being sourced from tidal channels during the dry season, rather than the locally saline groundwater from tubewells. Irrigation water for rice paddies is also obtained from the tidal channels, but during the wet season when surface waters are fresh. Salts become concentrated in irrigation water through evaporation, with average salinity increasing from 0.43 ppt in the tidal channel source to 0.91 ppt in the rice paddies. Our observations suggest that the practice of seasonally alternating rice and shrimp farming in a field has a negligible effect on rice paddy water salinity. Also, shrimp ponds do not significantly affect the salinity of adjacent surface water bodies or subjacent groundwater because impermeable shallow surface deposits of silt and clay mostly isolate surface water bodies from each other and from the shallow groundwater aquifer. Bivariate plots of conservative element concentrations show that all surface water types lie on mixing lines between dry season tidal channel water and rainwater, i.e., all are related by varying degrees of salinization. High As concentrations in dry season tidal channel water and shrimp ponds likely result from groundwater exfiltration and upstream irrigation in the dry season. Arsenic is transferred from tidal channels to rice paddies through irrigation. Including groundwater samples from the same area (Ayers et al. in Geochem Trans 17:1-22, 2016), principal components analysis and correlation analysis reveal that salinization explains most variation in surface water compositions, whereas progressive reduction of buried surface water by dissolved organic carbon is responsible for the nonconservative behavior of S, Fe, and As and changes in Eh and alkalinity of groundwater.

Dataset Information

Drinking Water Arsenic Contamination, Skin Lesions, and Malignancies: A Systematic Review of the Global Evidence.

Publications

Drinking Water Arsenic Contamination, Skin Lesions, and Malignancies: A Systematic Review of the Global Evidence.

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