Dermatological and nutritional/growth effects among children living in arsenic-contaminated communities in rural Bangladesh.
While many reports have outlined the health risk of chronic arsenic exposure on adult populations, relatively little is known about the effects on children. We have examined the effects of chronic arsenic exposure through consumption of contaminated groundwater among 241 children (age 4-15 yr) living in two rural villages in northern Bangladesh. The arsenic concentrations of the tubewell waters ranged from less than detection limit to 535 ng/mL, and in 72 of 241 (30%) tubewells, the water arsenic concentration exceeded 50 ng/mL, the provisional guideline of Bangladesh. Approximately half of the examined children exhibited dermatological symptoms with relatively obscured dose-response relationship; an observation suggesting that the children were no more susceptible to the dermatological effects of arsenic than the adults living in the same communities. Proportion of the children with lower BMI significantly increased with increasing arsenic exposure level; the dose-response relationship was consistently observed among the subgroups. These results suggested that while mild dermatological manifestations, potentially associated with arsenic exposure, could be found as much as half of the children, nutritional status of the children, evaluated by BMI, might be a sensitive endpoint than the dermatological manifestations among children in this area.
Watanabe
Chiho
C
Department of Human Ecology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo. chiho@humeco.m.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Matsui
Tamano
T
Inaoka
Tsukasa
T
Kadono
Takefumi
T
Miyazaki
Kaori
K
Bae
Mun-Joo
MJ
Ono
Tomomichi
T
Ohtsuka
Ryutaro
R
Bokul
A T M Mozammel Haque
AT
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis*; D020261:Arsenic Poisoning / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D001459:Bangladesh; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000187:drug effects; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012424:Rural Population; D012867:Skin / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000506:poisoning; D014881:Water Supply / Q000032:analysis*
D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D001151:Arsenic