Assessment of arsenic exposure risk from drinking water and dietary component in West Bengal, India

• The current status of arsenic (As) exposure risk from drinking water and different dietary components in rural Bengal has been compared in the present study. This study shows that the consumption of rice is the major source of dietary intake of inorganic As among the population when they are drinking As safe water. Consumption of vegetables does not pose a significant health threat to the population independently; it nevertheless can increase the total daily intake of inorganic As (TDI-iAs). The results indicate that when people are drinking water with As concentration <10 μg L-1, in 35% of the cases 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). It should be mention here that the joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives (JECFA) has withdrawn the previous PTDI value in their 72nd meeting because PTDI value was in the lower range of bench mark dose level for 0.5% increased of lung cancer. However, Codex Committee on Contaminants in Foods (CCCF) has argued that TDI-iAs below BMDL0.5 does not indicates that there is no risk and this motivated us to compare TDI-iAs of the participants with the previous PTDI value of 2.1 μg day-1 kg-1 bw. At the As concentration level <10 μg L-1in drinking water, the consumption of rice is the major source of daily intake of inorganic As. When As concentration in drinking water exceeds 10 μg L-1, drinking water and rice consumption contributes almost equally (~40% from rice, ~50% from drinking water, and 10% from vegetables according to median DI-iAs) and TDI-iAs exceeds previous PTDI for all the participants. The relative contribution of daily intake of iAs from drinking water (DI-iAs-DW) largely predominates over daily intake of iAs from rice (DI-iAs-R) when As concentration in drinking water exceeds 50 μg L-1. This study implies that when consumption of rice contributes significantly to the TDI-iAs, supply of drinking water to the population considering national drinking water standard of India and Bangladesh as a safety measure for As might compound the As exposure largely by increasing TDI-iAs. Thus it can be concluded that any effort to mitigate the As poisoning of rural villagers in Bengal must look beyond the drinking water and consider all the routes of exposure.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Geokemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Geochemistry (hsv//eng)

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