Table 5.
Effects on arsenic as a consequence of early life and in utero exposure
| Reference | County | Design | Characteristics of subjects | Measure | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concha et al. (1998) | Argentina | Cross-sectional | 11 women in late gestation (exposed to 200 µg/liter drinking water arsenic) | Urinary As metabolite %DMA | In newborns and mothers in late gestation 90% urinary As was DMA compared to 70% in nonpregnant women (p < 0.001) |
| Concha et al. (1998) | Argentina | Cross-sectional | 10 lactating women and two nursing babies (drinking water arsenic ~200 µg/1) | Total maternal blood urinary and milk As | 10 µg/l, 320 µg/l, 2.3 µg/kg fresh weight |
| Concha et al. (1998) | Argentina | Cross-sectional | 96 women and children, from two villages of high drinking water arsenic exposure (200 µg/l) and one of low exposure (0.65 µg As/1) |
Urinary As metabolites |
Inorganic As in urine: about 50% in children versus 32% in women. Relative to other studies, there was very little MMA excreted. |
| Hopenhayn-Rich et al. (2000) | Chile | Ecological | Antofagasta (exposure: ~860 µg/L As in drinking water 1958–1970, abruptly declined to ~110 µg/L in 1971), Valparaiso (reference) |
RR (95% CI) | 1.7 (1.5–1.9), late fetal mortality; 1.53 (1.4–1.7), neonatal mortality; 1.26 (1.2–1.3), postneonatal mortality |
| Calderon et al. (2001) | Mexico | Cross-sectional | 41 children chronically exposed to arsenic and lead (AsU = 62.9+/−0.03 µgAs/g creatinine), 39 children with low exposure (40.2+/−0.03 µgAs/g creatinine), all 6–9 years of age |
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Revised Version, for Mexico | Higher levels of arsenic were significantly associated with lower performance on WISC-RM factorsexamining long-term memory and linguistic abstraction. |
| Hopenhayn et al. (2003) | Chile | Prospective cohort | 424 infants from a high-exposure town (40 µg As/L drinking water) and 420 from a low-exposure town (<1 µg As/L drinking water) | Birth weight | −57 g; 95% CI = −123 to 9 |
| Hopenhayn et al. (2003) | Chile | Prospective cohort | 26 mothers living in a high-exposure city (40 µg As/L drinking water) |
Urinary As | Initial mean value of 36.1 to a final value of 54.3 µg/L |
| Yanez et al. (2003) | Mexico | Cross-sectional | 20 children of age 3–6 years from high- exposure community (soil: 100 mg/kg of arsenic), 35 children of age 3–6 years from low-exposure community |
Comet assay | PO.05 |
| Hopenhayn et al. (2006) | Chile | Prospective cohort | 810 women who gave birth to live singleton infants (drinking water As exposure: 40 µg/L in exposure town, <1 µg/L for control town) |
Adjusted percent As | Third trimester: 49.4% vs. 17% (p< 0.0001) |
| Rocha-Amador et al. (2007) | Mexico | Cross-sectional | 132 children, age 6–10 years (average exposure in three separate towns: 5.8+/−1.3 µg/L, 169+/−0.9 µg/L, 194+/−1.3 µg/L) |
Association between As in drinking water and Performance, Verbal, and Full IQ scores |
β= −4.30, −6.40, −6.15 |
| Rosado et al. (2007) | Mexico | Cross-sectional | 557 children, 6–8 years of age living within 3.5 km of a metallurgic smelter complex |
Visual-Spatial Abilities with Figure Design, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the WISC-RM Digit Span subscale, Visual Search, and Letter Sequencing Tests |
Inverse association between U As and performance scores (p< 0.05) |
| Liaw et al. (2008) | Chile | Ecological | Regions II and V (exposure region: (exposure: ~870 µg/L As in drinking water 1958–1970, abruptly declined to ~110 µg/L in 1971) |
Childhood liver cancer mortality RR (95% CI) |
10.6(2.9–39.2) |
| Mendez-Gomez et al. (2008) | Mexico | Cross-sectional | 65 children exposed simultaneously to arsenic and lead (93% of children had As in urine above 50 µg/L) | Association of AsU and DNA repair ability |
β = −34.43, p = 0.019 |