Reducing Arsenic in Drinking Water Cuts Risk of Death, Even After Years of Chronic Exposure

"A new 20-year study of nearly 11,000 adults in Bangladesh found that lowering arsenic levels in drinking water was associated with up to a 50 percent lower risk of death from heart disease, cancer and other chronic illnesses, compared with continued exposure.Published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study provides the first long-term, individual-level evidence that reducing arsenic exposure may lower mortality, even among people exposed to the toxic contaminant for years."

""We show what happens when people who are chronically exposed to arsenic are no longer exposed to it," said co-lead author Lex van Geen of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which is part of the Columbia Climate School. "You're not just preventing deaths from future exposure, but also from past exposure." The results provide the clearest evidence to date of the link between arsenic reduction and lower mortality, says co-lead author Fen Wu of NYU Grossman School of Medicine. For two decades, the research team followed each participant's health and repeatedly collected urine samples to track exposure, which they say strengthened the accuracy of their findings."

"The landmark analysis, led by researchers at Columbia University and New York University, is important for public health because groundwater contamination from naturally occurring arsenic remains a serious issue worldwide. In the United States, more than 100 million people rely on potentially contaminated groundwater sources, especially private wells, for their drinking water. Arsenic is among the most common chemical pollutants."

A 20-year follow-up of nearly 11,000 adults in Bangladesh tracked arsenic exposure and mortality. Lowering arsenic levels in drinking water was associated with up to a 50 percent lower risk of death from heart disease, cancer, and other chronic illnesses compared with continued exposure. Repeated urinary arsenic measurements strengthened exposure assessment over two decades. Individuals whose urinary arsenic dropped from high to low experienced mortality rates identical to those with consistently low exposure. Larger reductions in arsenic corresponded to greater decreases in mortality risk. Continued consumption of high-arsenic water was associated with no reduction in death risk.

Read at State of the Planet