title: Antimony: an unlikely confounder in the relationship between well water arsenic and health outcomes in Bangladesh.
abstract: Recent in vitro studies have suggested a potential role for antimony as a confounder in human health studies related to arsenic in drinking water. We measured tube-well water concentrations of antimony and arsenic in the Pabna region of Bangladesh, where arsenic concentrations are known to be elevated and the concentrations of antimony have not yet been thoroughly documented. Two hundred forty-five tube-well water samples were collected from various regions in Pabna, Bangladesh, as part of an ongoing case-control study. Water samples were analyzed for arsenic and antimony concentrations by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency method 200.8. The arsenic concentrations in the tube-well water samples ranged from < 1 microg/L to 747 microg/L. All 245 water samples had antimony concentrations < 1 microg/L. Based on consideration of the concentrations used the in vitro studies compared with field-observed concentrations, our results do not support the hypothesis that antimony would be a significant confounder in observed relationships between arsenic exposure through drinking water and potential health outcomes in Pabna, Bangladesh.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: McCarty
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Senn
authors.forename: Molly L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Kile
authors.forename: Quazi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Quamruzzaman
authors.forename: Mahmuder
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.forename: Golam
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mahiuddin
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Christiani
mesh_terms: D000965:Antimony / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis*; D020261:Arsenic Poisoning; D001459:Bangladesh; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014881:Water Supply
chemical_list: D000965:Antimony; D001151:Arsenic