Journal
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 393, Issue 1, Pages 168-176Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2007.12.028
Keywords
arsenic; hair; nail; biomarker; Cambodia; groundwater
Categories
Funding
- EPSRC [EP/D032210/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [GR/S30207/01, EP/D032210/1] Funding Source: researchfish
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The health implications of the consumption of high arsenic groundwater in Bangladesh and West Bengal are well-documented, however, little is known about the level of arsenic exposure elsewhere in Southeast Asia, where widespread exploitation of groundwater resources is less well established. We measured the arsenic concentrations of nail and hair samples collected from residents of Kandal province, Cambodia, an area recently identified to host arsenic-rich groundwaters, in order to evaluate the extent of arsenic exposure. Nail and hair arsenic concentrations ranged from 0.20 to 6.50 mu g g(-1) (n = 70) and 0.10 to 7.95 mu g g(-1) (n = 40), respectively, in many cases exceeding typical baseline levels. The arsenic content of the groundwater used for drinking water purposes (0.21-943 mu g L-1 (n = 31)) was positively correlated with both nail (r=0.74, p<0.0001) and hair (r=0.86, p<0.0001) arsenic concentrations. in addition, the nail and hair samples collected from inhabitants using groundwater that exceeded the Cambodian drinking water legal limit of 50 mu g L-1 arsenic contained significantly more arsenic than those of individuals using groundwater containing <50 mu g L-1 arsenic. X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy suggested that sulfur-coordinated arsenic was the dominant species in the bulk of the samples analysed, with additional varying degrees of As(III)-O character. Tentative linear least squares fitting of the XANES data pointed towards differences in the pattern of arsenic speciation between the nail and hair samples analysed, however, mismatches in sample and standard absorption peak intensity prevented us from unambiguously determining the arsenic species distribution. The good correlation with the groundwater arsenic concentration, allied with the relative ease of sampling such tissues, indicate that the arsenic content of hair and nail samples may be used as an effective biomarker of arsenic intake in this relatively recently exposed population. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available