Using disability-adjusted life years to estimate the cancer risks of low-level arsenic in drinking water

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that long-term exposure to low-level arsenic (<10 μg/L) may cause human health problems. However, the induced cancer risks and differences among multisite cancers have not been well-understood. In this study, the concentrations of low-level arsenic in drinking water in XP city, Northwest China were investigated. A health risk assessment was carried out for different age groups and exposure pathways based on Monte Carlo simulations and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The measured arsenic levels were in the range of 7.61–9.25 μg/L with a mean of 8.23 μg/L. For the public, the average total lifetime cancer risk was 3.87 × 10⁻⁴, and the total DALYs estimation for all age groups was 20.58 person-year. The average individual DALYs lost was 3.35 × 10⁻⁵ per person-year (ppy), which was 33.5 times the reference value (1.00 × 10⁻⁶ ppy). The mortality burden had a considerably larger contribution (97.31%) to the total disease burden, and the 60–65-year age group exhibited the largest DALYs lost. Skin cancer exhibited the largest burden of 2.15 × 10⁻⁵ ppy, followed by lung cancer (1.20 × 10⁻⁵ ppy). This study might be useful for potential strategies of risk control and management in XP drinking water.

Keywords:

• Arsenic
• cancer risk
• disability-adjusted life years
• drinking water
• health risk assessment

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (Program No. 2018JM5125), International Science and Technology Cooperation Program in Shaanxi Province (No. 2018KW-011), the Youth Innovation Team of Shaanxi Universities. The authors would like to thank the editors and reviewers for the valuable comments and suggestions.