Arsenic-Related Mortality in Bangladesh
Joseph Graziano, Ph.D., Alexander van Geen, Ph.D. and Hanibul Ahsan, M.D., MMedSc.,
Columbia University
NIEHS Grants P30ES009089 and P42ES010349
NIEHS-supported researchers report that 21.4 percent of all deaths in the Araihazar region of Bangladesh can be attributed to well-water arsenic concentrations greater than 10 micrograms per liter. Their findings are from the first prospective study to investigate the link between arsenic exposure and mortality and are published online in Lancet.
Current estimates suggest that 35-77 million of the 125 million inhabitants of Bangladesh drink arsenic-contaminated water. More than 55 percent of the 11,746 study participants drink water with more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter, the current Bangladesh standard, and 75 percent consume water which is more contaminated than the World Health Organization standard of 10 micrograms per liter. However, a unique feature of this study is that it includes participants at both the low and high ends of the dose-response curve. For people exposed to the highest doses of arsenic, all-cause mortality was nearly 70 percent higher relative to those exposed to less than 10 micrograms per liter.
Arsenic-contaminated drinking water is an environmental health problem in many parts of the world including some areas of the United States. The investigators plan follow-up studies to assess other long-term effects of arsenic exposure and how they might be ameliorated by changes in exposure. However, they point out that "solutions and resources are urgently needed to mitigate the resulting health effects of arsenic exposure."
Citation: Arsenic exposure from drinking water, and all-cause and chronic-disease mortalities in Bangladesh (HEALS): a prospective cohort study. Argos M, Kalra T, Tathouz PJ, Chen Y, Pierce B, Parvez F, Islam T, Ahmed A, Rakibus-Zaman M, Hasan R, Sarwar G, Slakovich V, van Geen A, Graziano J, Ahsan H. Lancet. 2010 Jun 19: DOI:10.1016/S0140-673(10)60481-3.
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