Dietary arsenic exposure with low level of arsenic in drinking water and biomarker: A study in West Bengal

Abstract

The authors investigated association of arsenic intake through water and diet and arsenic level in urine in people living in arsenic endemic region in West Bengal supplied with arsenic-safe water (<50 μg L⁻¹). Out of 94 (Group-1A) study participants using water with arsenic level <50 μg L⁻¹, 72 participants (Group-1B) were taking water with arsenic level <10 μg L⁻¹. Multiple regressions analysis conducted on the Group-1A participants showed that daily arsenic dose from water and diet were found to be significantly positively associated with urinary arsenic level. However, daily arsenic dose from diet was found to be significantly positively associated with urinary arsenic level in Group-1B participants only, but no significant association was found with arsenic dose from water in this group. In a separate analysis, out of 68 participants with arsenic exposure through diet only, urinary arsenic concentration was found to correlate positively (r = 0.573) with dietary arsenic in 45 participants with skin lesion while this correlation was insignificant (r = 0.007) in 23 participants without skin lesion. Our study suggested that dietary arsenic intake was a potential pathway of arsenic exposure even where arsenic intake through water was reduced significantly in arsenic endemic region in West Bengal. Observation of variation in urinary arsenic excretion in arsenic-exposed subjects with and without skin lesion needed further study.

Keywords:

• Arsenic in water
• arsenic in diet
• arsenic in urine
• biomarker
• arsenicosis

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank Dr. S. Sarkar, Dr. T. K. Mondal, Dr. S. Samanta, Dr. S. C. Santra, R. N. Guha Mazumder, Anath Pramanick, Gopal Modak, Goutam Dutta and Narayan Chandra Das for their help in the execution of this study. Special thanks are due to all the patients and villagers for their participation and cooperation in carrying on this study.