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A cross-sectional study of water arsenic exposure and intellectual function in adolescence in Araihazar, Bangladesh.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Exposure to inorganic arsenic (As) from drinking water is associated with modest deficits in intellectual function in young children; it is unclear whether deficits occur during adolescence, when key brain functions are more fully developed. OBJECTIVES:We sought to determine the degree to which As exposure is associated with adolescent intelligence, and the contributory roles of lead, cadmium, manganese and selenium. METHODS:We recruited a cross-section of 726 14-16?year olds (mean age?=?14.8?years) whose mothers are participants in the Bangladesh Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study (HEALS), and whose household well water As levels, which varied widely, were well characterized. Using a culturally modified version of the WISC-IV, we examined raw Full Scale scores, and Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory and Processing Speed Indices. Blood levels of As (BAs), Mn, Pb, Cd and Se were assessed at the time of the visit, as was creatinine-adjusted urinary As (UAs/Cr). RESULTS:Linear regression analyses revealed that BAs was significantly negatively associated with all WISC-IV scores except for Perceptual Reasoning. With UAs/Cr as the exposure variable, we observed significantly negative associations for all WISC-IV scores. Except for Se, blood levels of other metals, were also associated with lower WISC-IV scores. Controlling for covariates, doubling BAs, or UAs/Cr, was associated with a mean decrement (95% CI) of 3.3 (1.1, 5.5), or 3.0 (1.2, 4.5) points, respectively, in raw Full scale scores with a sample mean of 177.6 (SD?=?36.8). Confirmatory analyses using Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression, which identifies important mixture members, supported these findings; the primary contributor of the mixture was BAs, followed by BCd. CONCLUSIONS:Our data indicate that the adverse consequences of As exposure on neurodevelopment observed in other cross-sectional studies of younger children are also apparent during adolescence. They also implicate Cd as a neurotoxic element that deserves more attention.

SUBMITTER: Wasserman GA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6358166 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A cross-sectional study of water arsenic exposure and intellectual function in adolescence in Araihazar, Bangladesh.

Wasserman Gail A GA Liu Xinhua X Parvez Faruque F Chen Yu Y Factor-Litvak Pam P LoIacono Nancy J NJ Levy Diane D Shahriar Hasan H Uddin Mohammed Nasir MN Islam Tariqul T Lomax Angela A Saxena Roheeni R Gibson Elizabeth A EA Kioumourtzoglou Marianthi-Anna MA Balac Olgica O Sanchez Tiffany T Kline Jennie K JK Santiago David D Ellis Tyler T van Geen Alexander A Graziano Joseph H JH

Environment international 20180620

<h4>Background</h4>Exposure to inorganic arsenic (As) from drinking water is associated with modest deficits in intellectual function in young children; it is unclear whether deficits occur during adolescence, when key brain functions are more fully developed.<h4>Objectives</h4>We sought to determine the degree to which As exposure is associated with adolescent intelligence, and the contributory roles of lead, cadmium, manganese and selenium.<h4>Methods</h4>We recruited a cross-section of 726 14 ...[more]

PMID: 29933234

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Project description:Chronic exposure to arsenic is associated with increased morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD); however, plausible biomarker for early prediction and the underlying mechanism of arsenic-related CVD have not yet been clearly understood. Endothelial dysfunction plays a central role in the development of CVD. We hypothesized that endothelial damage or dysfunction is an important aspect and may be an early event of arsenic-related CVD. Soluble thrombomodulin (sTM) in serum is thought to be a specific and stable marker for endothelial damage or dysfunction. This study was designed to evaluate the association between chronic exposure to arsenic and sTM among human subjects in arsenic-endemic and non-endemic rural areas in Bangladesh. A total of 321 study subjects (217 from arsenic-endemic areas and 104 from a non-endemic area) were recruited. Subjects' arsenic exposure levels (i.e., drinking water, hair and nail arsenic concentrations) were measured by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy. The subjects' serum sTM levels were quantified by immunoassay kit. The average sTM levels of the subjects in arsenic-endemic and non-endemic areas were 4.58 ± 2.20 and 2.84 ± 1.29 (ng mL-1) respectively, and the difference was significant (p<0.001). Arsenic exposure levels showed a significant (water arsenic: rs = 0.339, p<0.001, hair arsenic: rs = 0.352, p<0.001 and nail arsenic: rs = 0.308, p<0.001) positive associations with sTM levels. Soluble TM levels were higher in the higher exposure gradients if we stratified the subjects into tertile groups (low, medium and high) based on the arsenic concentrations of the subjects' drinking water, hair and nails. Finally, increased levels of sTM were negatively correlated with high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and positively correlated with intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1). Results of this study show that chronic exposure to arsenic has mild to moderate association with sTM levels.

Project description:BackgroundConcentrations of arsenic (As) are elevated in a large proportion of wells in Bangladesh but are spatially variable even within a village. This heterogeneity can enable exposed households to switch to a nearby well lower in As in response to blanket (area-wide) well As testing.ObjectivesWe document the evolution of As exposure in Araihazar, Bangladesh following a blanket well testing and education campaign, as well as the installation of a considerable number of low As community wells.MethodsWe use well water and urinary As data collected between 2000 and 2008, along with household interviews extending through 2016, within a 25 km2 area of Araihazar upazila for nearly 12,000 participants enrolled in the Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study (HEALS). We observe changes in participants' well water and urinary As concentrations following interventions to lower their exposure and use logistic regression to determine the factors associated with participants' decisions to switch primary household wells.ResultsUrinary As for participants drinking from wells with >100 μg/L As at baseline declined from a mean of 226 μg/L at baseline to 173 μg/L two years later, and further declined to 139 μg/L over 8 years. For comparison, urinary As concentrations for participants drinking from wells with ≤10 μg/L As remained close to 50 μg/L throughout. Whereas the interventions only partially reduced exposure, well status with respect to As was predictive of well-switching decisions for at least a decade after the initial testing. Participants with high-As wells were 7 times more likely to switch wells over the first two years and 1.4-1.8 times more likely to switch wells over the ensuing decade.ConclusionsArsenic exposure gradually declined following blanket well testing, an education campaign, and the installation of community wells but remained almost three times higher than for a subgroup of the participants drinking from wells with ≤10 μg/L. In addition, the number of participants with unknown As concentrations in their primary household wells increased substantially over time, indicating the importance of additional well testing as new wells continue to be installed, in addition to other means of reducing As exposure.

Project description:GOAL:The goal of this study was to evaluate the association between groundwater arsenic and fasting blood glucose in the context of other groundwater chemicals, in Bangladesh. METHODS:Fasting blood glucose, gender, body mass index, sociodemographic variables, and diabetes medication use were measured among adults ??35 years of age (n?=?6587) participating in the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2011. Groundwater chemicals in 3534 well water samples were measured in the British Geological Survey (BGS) and Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) 1998-99 survey. We assigned the nearest BGS-DPHE well's chemical exposure to each BDHS participant. We used survey-estimation linear regression methods to model natural log-transformed fasting blood glucose, among those using groundwater as their primary drinking-water source, as a function of groundwater arsenic. We considered possible interactions between categorical arsenic exposure and each of 14 other groundwater chemicals dichotomized at their medians. The chemicals considered as possible effect modifiers included: aluminum, barium, calcium, iron, potassium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, phosphorous, silicon, sulfate, strontium, and zinc. RESULTS:Compared to persons exposed to groundwater arsenic ??10??g/L, the adjusted geometric mean ratio (GMR) of fasting blood glucose was 1.01 (95% confidence interval: 0.98, 1.04) for individuals exposed to groundwater arsenic concentrations >?10??g/L and ??50??g/L, and was 1.01 (0.97, 1.03) for those with >?50??g/L arsenic. There were no Bonferroni-significant interactions with other chemicals, after accounting for the large number of chemicals tested as modifiers. CONCLUSIONS:In our analysis of groundwater chemistry data from 1998/99 and fasting blood glucose outcomes measured in nearby populations approximately a decade later, there was no overall association of fasting blood glucose with nearby historical groundwater arsenic. This null association was not significantly modified by the historical levels of other groundwater chemicals. These null results are inconclusive regarding shorter-term potential toxicity of arsenic for glucose regulation, if there are differences between the historical concentrations measured in nearby groundwater and the actual drinking water chemical exposures in the population during the etiologically relevant period for more acute phenotypes like fasting blood glucose. Drinking water supply-relevant, longitudinal exposure assessment with less measurement error is needed to more precisely evaluate the joint impacts of drinking water chemicals and establish if there is a sensitive time window for glycemic outcomes.

Dataset Information

A cross-sectional study of water arsenic exposure and intellectual function in adolescence in Araihazar, Bangladesh.

Publications

A cross-sectional study of water arsenic exposure and intellectual function in adolescence in Araihazar, Bangladesh.

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