Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPOSURE ANALYSIS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
Volume 12, Issue 3, Pages 179-185Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/sj.jea.7500216
Keywords
arsenic; skin cancer; environmental exposure; airborne; coal; Europe; Slovakia
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A coal-burning power station in the Nitra Valley in central Slovakia annually emitted large quantities of arsenic (up to 200 tonnes) between 1953 and 1989, Since then, pollution-control measures have reduced arsenic emissions to less than 2 tonnes a year. However, the power station was still a source of airborne arsenic pollution, As part of an EU-funded study on exposure to arsenic and cancer risk in central and Eastern Europe we carried out a study of environmental levels of arsenic in the homes and gardens of residents of the district. Garden soil samples (n=210), house dust samples (n=210) and composite house dust samples (n=109) were collected and analysed using inductively coupled plasma atomic absorption spectroscopy (ICP-AES) at Imperial College. The mean arsenic content of coal and ash in samples taken from the plant was 5 19 mug/g (n=19) and 863 mug/g (n=22), respectively. The geometric mean (GM) arsenic concentration of garden soils was 26 mug/g (range 8.8-139.0 mug/g), for house dust 11.6 mug/g (range 2.1-170 mug/g) and for composite house dust 9.4 mug/g (range 2.3-61.5 mug/g). The correlation between the arsenic levels in soil and in house dust was 0.3 (P<0.01), in soil and composite house dust 0.4 and house dust and composite house dust 0.4 (P<0.01 for both), i.e., were moderate. Arsenic levels in both house dust and soil decreased with distance from the power station. Overall, levels in both fell by half 5 km from the point source. Weak correlations were seen between the total urinary arsenic concentrations and arsenic concentrations in composite house dust.
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