Putting drinking water to the public health test This in-depth study examined the effects on the human body of consuming the naturally occurring arsenic found in drinking water. It looks at its association with bladder, skin and kidney cancers and in particular the risk, mechanism and susceptibility of the arsenic component in relation to these cancers. Health © Shutterstock Arsenic is a poisonous metalloid and this chemical is soluble in water. The arsenic found in groundwater is of natural origin, and is released from the sediment into the groundwater due to the anoxic conditions of the subsurface. Some geographic areas contain very high levels of naturally occurring arsenic. There has not been a public health disaster in these areas as it can be avoided by the use of bottled water. Inorganic arsenic is a human carcinogen. As of 2004, EU legislation states that total arsenic levels in drinking water should not exceed 10 parts per billion. The EU funded ASHRAM project was a large multi-country hospital based case-control study of arsenic and cancer risk. It was completed, based on multi-disciplinary work in the fields of epidemiology, toxicology, analytical chemistry and genetics. By examining 1,200 cases and 600 control cases, the project looked at a larger population than had ever been previously tested in this field of aetiology. The results showed that there was a positive association between exposures to arsenic and three cancer types; these are skin, bladder and kidney. It was found that the correlation was strongest in the case of skin cancer. It was taken into account and the necessary adjustments were made for variations in diet, tobacco consumption and occupation.
