Urinary Arsenic in Human Samples from Areas Characterized by Natural or Anthropogenic Pollution in Italy

Fabrizio Minichilli, Fabrizio Bianchi, Anna Maria Ronchi, Francesca Gorini and Elisa Bustaffa
Additional contact information
Fabrizio Minichilli: National Research Council—Institute of Clinical Physiology, 56100 Pisa, Italy
Fabrizio Bianchi: National Research Council—Institute of Clinical Physiology, 56100 Pisa, Italy
Anna Maria Ronchi: Laboratory of Experimental and Clinical Toxicology, Maugeri Clinical Scientific Institutes, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Francesca Gorini: National Research Council—Institute of Clinical Physiology, 56100 Pisa, Italy
Elisa Bustaffa: National Research Council—Institute of Clinical Physiology, 56100 Pisa, Italy

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-19

Abstract: Arsenic is ubiquitous and has a potentially adverse impact on human health. We compared the distribution of concentrations of urinary inorganic arsenic plus methylated forms (uc(iAs+MMA+DMA)) in four Italian areas with other international studies, and we assessed the relationship between uc(iAs+MMA+DMA) and various exposure factors. We conducted a human biomonitoring study on 271 subjects (132 men) aged 20–44, randomly sampled and stratified by area, gender, and age. Data on environmental and occupational exposure and dietary habits were collected through a questionnaire. Arsenic was speciated using chromatographic separation and inductively coupled mass spectrometry. Associations between uc(iAs+MMA+DMA) and exposure factors were evaluated using the geometric mean ratio (GMR) with a 90% confidence interval by stepwise multiple regression analysis. The 95th percentile value of uc(iAs+MMA+DMA) for the whole sample (86.28 µg/L) was higher than other national studies worldwide. A statistical significant correlation was found between uc(iAs+MMA+DMA) and occupational exposure (GMR: 2.68 [1.79–4.00]), GSTT gene (GMR: 0.68 [0.52–0.80]), consumption of tap water (GMR: 1.35 [1.02–1.77]), seafood (GMR: 1.44 [1.11–1.88]), whole milk (GMR: 1.34 [1.04–1.73]), and fruit/vegetables (GMR: 1.37 [1.03–1.82]). This study demonstrated the utility of uc(iAs+MMA+DMA) as a biomarker to assess environmental exposure. In a public health context, this information could be used to support remedial action, to prevent individuals from being further exposed to environmental arsenic sources.

Keywords: arsenic; epidemiology; biomarker; biomonitoring; urinary species (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/299/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/299/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:2:p:299-:d:131040

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().