title: Human health risk assessment from arsenic exposures in Bangladesh.
abstract: High arsenic exposures, prevalent through dietary and non-dietary sources in Bangladesh, present a major health risk to the public. A quantitative human health risk assessment is described as a result of arsenic exposure through food and water intake, tea intake, accidental soil ingestion, and chewing of betel quid, while people meet their desirable dietary intake requirements throughout their lifetime. In evaluating the contribution of each intake pathway to average daily arsenic intake, the results show that food and water intake combined, makes up approximately 98% of the daily arsenic intake with the balance contributed to by intake pathways such as tea consumption, soil ingestion, and quid consumption. Under an exposure scenario where arsenic concentration in water is at the WHO guideline (0.01 mg/L), food intake is the major arsenic intake pathway ranging from 67% to 80% of the average daily arsenic intake. However, the contribution from food drops to a range of 29% to 45% for an exposure scenario where arsenic in water is at the Bangladesh standard (0.05 mg/L). The lifetime excess risk of cancer occurrence from chronic arsenic exposure, considering a population of 160 million people, based on an exposure scenario with 85 million people at the WHO guideline value and 75 million people at the Bangladesh standard, and assuming that 35 million people are associated with a heavy activity level, is estimated as 1.15 million cases.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario N1G2W1, Canada.
authors.forename: Tijo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario N1G2W1, Canada; Environmental Engineering Division, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India. Electronic address: bkdubey@civil.iitkgp.ernet.in.
authors.forename: Brajesh
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dubey
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario N1G2W1, Canada.
authors.forename: Edward A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: McBean
mesh_terms: D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D001459:Bangladesh; D004032:Diet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D001151:Arsenic
keywords: Chronic arsenic exposure; Dietary arsenic intake; Health risk assessment