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High Childhood Arsenic Exposure Associated With Young Adult Lung CancerChildren exposed to high levels of arsenic in their drinking water have a seven- to 12-fold higher risk of dying of lung cancer or other lung diseases in early adulthood, a new study reports.
In 1958 two Chilean cities, Mejillones and Antofagasta, took drinking water from rivers with high levels of arsenic. The water remained contaminated for the next 13 years, laced with an average of 860 µg/L (in comparison with the U.S. average of 10 µg/L). Allan Smith, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, and colleagues compared the death rates of young adults in these two villages from 1989 to 2000 with rates in cities in the rest of Chile. They focused on those born between 1951 and 1958, where there were low arsenic concentrations in the water, and between 1958 and 1971, when there were high arsenic concentrations in the water.
The authors found that people born in Mejillones and Antofagasta between 1951 and 1958 had a death rate seven times that of people in other Chilean cities. Those born in the villages between 1958 and 1971 had a death rate 12 times that of people in other Chilean cities. The authors suggest that arsenic exposure as a child can lead to a large increase in mortality as a young adult.
The study was published online March 27 in Environmental Health Perspectives.
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