Abstract

National groundwater surveys suggest that millions of people living in Bangladesh are at risk of ingesting arsenic-contaminated water as the result of a public health initiative that switched the population's drinking water from surface to groundwater by installing shallow tubewells [27]. The concentration of arsenic in these shallow tubewells ranges from non-detectable to upwards of 2,000 ?g/L. It is estimated that approximately 59 % of the tubwells tested exceed the Bangladesh drinking water standard of 50 ?g/L [27]. Inorganic arsenic is a known human carcinogen, and chronic exposure increases the risk of cancers of the skin, bladder, lung, and kidney [10, 39, 41]. Chronic exposure to arsenic is also associated with non-cancer outcomes including bronchitis, cardiovascular disease, adverse reproductive outcomes, and type 2 diabetes [12, 14, 15, 24, 33, 40]. The first dermal signs of arsenic toxicity manifest as melanosis and/or leukomelanosis, keratosis, and hyperkeratosis of the palms and soles [15]. Prospective epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that the risk of arsenic-related skin lesions increases in a dose-dependent manner and that the presence of skin lesions are highly associated with risk of cancer later in life [4, 23].

Details

Title
A cross sectional study of anemia and iron deficiency as risk factors for arsenic-induced skin lesions in Bangladeshi women
Author
Kile, Molly L; Faraj, Joycelyn M; Ronnenberg, Alayne G; Quamruzzaman, Quazi; Rahman, Mahmudar; Golam Mostofa; Sakila Afroz; Christiani, David C
Pages
n/a
Publication year
2016
Publication date
2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
e-ISSN
14712458
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1773761898
Copyright
Copyright BioMed Central 2016