Dietary contribution to total urinary arsenic in Mexican women

Abstract

Exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs) damages health in many ways. The main routes of human exposure are consumption of contaminated water and diet, but evidence regarding the dietary contribution of iAs is limited. The objective of this work was to determine the foods and beverages that contribute to urinary total arsenic levels (TAs). This is a secondary analysis of an original study of breast cancer cases and population controls carried out in northern Mexico during the period 2007–2011, from which 1,462 women without a history of diabetes were selected. We estimated the consumption of the food and beverage groups with a frequency questionnaire. We measured the concentrations of urinary iAs metabolites by high performance liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS). Total arsenic ranged from 0.5 to 2,360 µg/g creatinine. After adjusting for covariates, we observed a positive association between TAs (with arsenobetaine) with non-bottled drinking water intake, as well as the consumption of root vegetables, vegetables and fruits rich in water, eggs, fish and shellfish. Our findings highlight the relevance of water consumption and some foods for TAs exposure. Food quality monitoring deserves attention in high-risk regions of arsenic contamination.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Arsenic
• diet
• drinking
• water
• Mexico

Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful to the women that participated in the study and: Verónica López for coordination of the fieldwork; Reina Collado for administrative support; Rosa Maria Garcia Hernández for laboratory technical assistance, as well as the participating hospitals: in Nuevo León, UMAE H. de Especialidades No. 25 and 23 from IMSS, H. Regional ‘Monterrey’ from ISSSTE, Centro Universitario contra el Cáncer, H. Universitario ‘Dr. José E. González’; in Coahuila, H. de la Mujer and H. General de Torreón from SSA, and UMAE H. de Especialidades 71 from IMSS; in Chihuahua, H. General ‘Ciudad Juárez’ and H. General ‘Presidente Lázaro Cárdenas’ from ISSSTE, and Centro Estatal de Cancerología de Chihuahua from SSA; in Sonora, H. General ‘Dr. Fernando Ocaranza’ from ISSSTE, H. Integral de la Mujer del Estado de Sonora and H. Oncológico del Estado de Sonora from SSA, and UMAE Hospital de Especialidades No. 2 from IMSS; in Durango, Clínica H. ‘Gómez Palacio’ and H General ‘Dr. Santiago Ramón y Cajal’ from ISSSTE, and Centro Estatal de Cancerología de Durango de from SSA.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT)-Fondo Sectorial de Investigación en Salud y Seguridad Social (FOSISS) SALUD-2005-C02-14373, SALUD- 2009-01-111384, SALUD-2010-C01-140962, SALUD-2016-1-272632; Fondo Sectorial de Investigación para la Educación 2008-79912 SEP-CONACYT; Proyectos de desarrollo científico para atender problemas nacionales PDCPN2013-01-215464; Fondo Institucional para el Desarrollo Científico, Tecnológico y de Innovación FORDECYT-PRONACES/137732/2020 and partially funded by U.S.-Mexico Binational Center for Environmental Science and Toxicology.