title: Total and speciated urinary arsenic levels in the Spanish population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Very few studies exist on urinary arsenic exposure in Spain.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate total and speciated urinary arsenic (As) levels in a Spanish population sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  Demographic, lifestyle and dietary data was collected for 124 volunteers (aged 20-76years; 88 women and 36 men), who were tested for total arsenic and five arsenic species using high-performance liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Arsenobetaine (AB) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) were detected in 96.8% of the study participants (limit of detection (LOD) 1.0μg/L for AB and 1.9μg/L for DMA). Monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) and arsenous acid (As(III)) were detected in 5.6% (LOD 1.8μg/L) and 1.6% (LOD 1.4μg/L) of the participants, respectively; arsenic acid (As(V)) was not detected (LOD 1.4μg/L). AB and DMA (geometric mean (GM) 29.1μg/L and 7.5μg/L, respectively) were the main contributors to total urinary arsenic levels. Urinary DMA was positively associated with AB.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Total arsenic levels observed in the Spanish population sample were higher than those reported by other European studies. The most recurrent urinary arsenic species was AB, followed by DMA, probably attributable to the high Spanish consumption of seafood. We recommend using inorganic As+MMA as the two main urinary biomarkers for inorganic As exposure. Our results provide reference data for analysing arsenic speciation results and assessing human exposure.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Toxicology of Defence, Central Hospital of Defence Gómez Ulla, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: irene.navarroserrano@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Navarro Serrano
authors.affiliation: Institute of Toxicology of Defence, Central Hospital of Defence Gómez Ulla, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: mllobal@oc.mde.es.
authors.forename: María Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Llorente Ballesteros
authors.affiliation: Institute of Toxicology of Defence, Central Hospital of Defence Gómez Ulla, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: ssanfer@fn.mde.es.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sánchez Fernández Pacheco
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Biochemistry, University Hospital Miguel Servet, Zaragoza, Spain. Electronic address: sizquierdoalvarez@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Izquierdo Álvarez
authors.affiliation: Institute of Toxicology of Defence, Central Hospital of Defence Gómez Ulla, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: Jlopcol@oc.mde.es.
authors.forename: Jose Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: López Colón
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001151:Arsenic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000652:urine*; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000652:urine*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013030:Spain; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D001151:Arsenic
keywords: Arsenic; Arsenic speciation; HPLC-ICP-MS; Urine