Urinary arsenic profiles reveal exposures to inorganic arsenic from private drinking water supplies in Cornwall, UK

Middleton, D.R.S.; Watts, M.J.; Hamilton, E.M.; Ander, E.L.; Close, R.M.; Exley, K.S.; Crabbe, H.; Leonardi, G.S.; Fletcher, T.; Polya, D.A.. 2016 Urinary arsenic profiles reveal exposures to inorganic arsenic from private drinking water supplies in Cornwall, UK. Scientific Reports, 6, 25656. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25656

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep25656

Abstract/Summary

Private water supplies (PWS) in Cornwall, South West England exceeded the current WHO guidance value and UK prescribed concentration or value (PCV) for arsenic of 10 μg/L in 5% of properties surveyed (n = 497). In this follow-up study, the first of its kind in the UK, volunteers (n = 207) from 127 households who used their PWS for drinking, provided urine and drinking water samples for total As determination by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and urinary As speciation by high performance liquid chromatography ICP-MS (HPLC-ICP-MS). Arsenic concentrations exceeding 10 μg/L were found in the PWS of 10% of the volunteers. Unadjusted total urinary As concentrations were poorly correlated (Spearman’s ρ = 0.36 (P < 0.001)) with PWS As largely due to the use of spot urine samples and the dominance of arsenobetaine (AB) from seafood sources. However, the osmolality adjusted sum, U-AsIMM, of urinary inorganic As species, arsenite (AsIII) and arsenate (AsV), and their metabolites, methylarsonate (MA) and dimethylarsinate (DMA), was found to strongly correlate (Spearman’s ρ: 0.62 (P < 0.001)) with PWS As, indicating private water supplies as the dominant source of inorganic As exposure in the study population of PWS users.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25656
ISSN:	2045-2322
Date made live:	01 Aug 2016 09:14 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514080

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25656

ISSN:

2045-2322

Date made live:

01 Aug 2016 09:14 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514080