ABSTRACT
A study was carried out to evaluate the health effects and risk assessment due to arsenic toxicity on an unexposed population residing in an arsenic-exposed zone. The studied population includes mothers (aged 23–31 years old) and their children (7 months–4 years old) from ten different families of an arsenic-exposed village, Madhusudankati of Gaighata block, North 24 Parganas district. The presence of arsenic in drinking water ranged from 3 to 7.95 µg/l, which was lower than the World Health Organization-recommended value, i.e., 10 µg/l. Cooked rice, consumed on a daily basis through the diet, contributed a considerable amount of arsenic, ranging from 11.6 to 97.6 µg/kg. Infants’ daily diets include breast milk, cow’s milk, and commercial baby food (Cerelac); homemade food mixtures contributed 6.34, 17.4 µg/l and 75.1, 207 µg/kg of arsenic, respectively. The daily dietary intakes of arsenic through water and cooked rice for mothers (0.88 µg/kg bw/day) and infants (0.63 µg/kg bw/day) were within the permissible limit (3 µg/kg bw/day). Mean urine arsenic concentration of the mothers and infants was 3.10 and 3 µg/l respectively, which showed that the populations were exposed to arsenic-free drinking water. Arsenic deposition in scalp hair and nails for the mothers was 3321 and 5829 µg/kg, respectively, which was higher than in the infants (1655 and 4148 µg/kg), signifying that the populations studied were sub-clinically exposed to arsenic toxicity. The potential cancer risk of arsenic for infants is lower through consumption of breast milk (2.11*10–6) compared to other dietary intakes (3.11*10–5). Future cancer risk assessment through ingestion of water and cooked rice for the mothers (1.79*10–4 and 4.04*10–4) was higher than for the infants (2.63*10–5and 2.11*10–5) compared to the US Environmental Protection Agency-recommended value for cancer risk (1*10–6).
