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Saliva as a biomarker of arsenic exposure: Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on Arsenic in the Environment, May 11-16, 2014, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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The ill effects of human exposure to arsenic (As) have recently been reevaluated by government agencies around the world. This has lead to a lowering of As guidelines in drinking water, with Canada decreasing the maximum allowable level from 50 to 25 μg/L and the U.S. from 50 to 10 μg/L. Canada is currently contemplating a further decrease to 5 μg/L. The reason for these regulatory changes is the realization that As can cause deleterious effects at lower concentrations than was previously thought. There is a strong relationship between chronic ingestion of As and deleterious human health effects and here we provide an overview of some of the major effects documented in the scientific literature. As regulatory levels of As have been decreased, an increasing number of water supplies will now require removal of As before the water can be used for human consumption. While As exposure can occur from food, air and water, all major chronic As poisonings have stemmed from water and this is usually the predominant exposure route. Exposure to As leads to an accumulation of As in tissues such as skin, hair and nails, resulting in various clinical symptoms such as hyperpigmentation and keratosis. There is also an increased risk of skin, internal organ, and lung cancers. Cardiovascular disease and neuropathy have also been linked to As consumption. Verbal IQ and long term memory can also be affected, and As can suppress hormone regulation and hormone mediated gene transcription. Increases in fetal loss and premature delivery, and decreased birth weights of infants, can occur even at low (
This study investigates the risk of arsenic (As) exposure to the communities in rural Bengal, even when they have been supplied with As safe drinking water. The estimates of exposure via dietary and drinking water routes show that when people are consuming water with As concentration <10 µg L-1, the total daily intake of inorganic As (TDI-iAs) exceeds the previous provisional tolerable daily intake (PTDI) value of 2.1 µg day-1 kg-1 BW, recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) in 35% of the cases due to consumption of rice. When the level of As concentration in drinking water is above 10 µg L-1, the TDI-iAs exceeds the previous PTDI for all the participants. These results imply that when rice consumption is a significant contributor to the TDI-iAs, supplying water with As concentration at current national drinking water standard for India and Bangladesh would place many people above the safety threshold of PTDI. We also found that the consumption of vegetables in rural Bengal does not pose significant health threat to the population independently. This study suggests that any effort to mitigate the As exposure of the villagers in Bengal must consider the risk of As exposure from rice consumption together with drinking water.
Mercury levels measured in urine, hair, and saliva of 245 German children (8-10 years old) are reported. Mercury concentrations in urine ranged between <0.1 and 5.3 microg/l [geometric mean (GM) 0.26 microg/l or 0.25 microg/g creatinine; median for both, 0.22 in microg/l and microg/g, respectively]. Using multiple linear regression analysis, two predictors have been found accounting for 25.3% of the variance of mercury levels in urine: the number of teeth with amalgam fillings (23.2%) and the number of defective amalgam fillings (2.1%). The mercury content in hair ranged from <0.06 to 1.7 microg/g (GM 0.18 microg/g; median 0.18 microg/g). The frequency of fish consumption, the smoking habits of the parents, and the age of the children accounted for 20.4% of the variance of mercury levels in hair. The correlation between the hair mercury content and urine mercury concentration was low (r=0.297). Mercury levels in saliva ranged between <0.32 and 4.5 microg/l (median 0.16 microg/l). The mercury concentration in saliva was below the limit of quantification of 0.32 microg/l in more than 70% of the samples. Mercury analysis in urine is suitable to estimate mercury exposure due to amalgam fillings, whereas hair mercury better reflects mercury intake by fish consumption. Up to now, saliva does not seem to be a suitable tool to monitor the mercury burden, at least not at low exposure levels.