Increased lung cancer risks are similar whether arsenic is ingested or inhaled.

Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology 2009, 19: 343–348 
Smith AH, Ercumen A, Yuan Y, Steinmaus CM. 
Arsenic Health Effects Research Program,School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA, and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, California Environmental Protection Agency, Oakland, California, USA. 
Abstract - In 1980, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) determined there was sufficient evidence to support that inorganic arsenic was a human lung carcinogen based on studies involving exposure through inhalation. In 2004, IARC listed arsenic in drinking water as a cause of lung cancer, making arsenic the first substance established to cause human cancer through two unrelated pathways of exposure. It may initially seem counterintuitive that arsenic in drinking water would cause human lung cancer, and even if it did, one might expect risks to be orders of magnitude lower than those from direct inhalation into the lungs. In this paper, we consider lung cancer dose–response relationships for inhalation and ingestion of arsenic by focusing on two key studies, a cohort mortality study in the United States involving Tacoma smelter workers inhaling arsenic, and a lung cancer case–control study involving ingestion of arsenic in drinking water in northern Chile. When exposure was assessed based on the absorbed dose identified by concentrations of arsenic in urine, there was very little difference in the dose–response findings for lung cancer relative risks between inhalation and ingestion. The lung cancer mortality rate ratio estimate was 8.0 (95% CI 3.2–16.5, P < 0.001) for an average urine concentration of 1179 microg/l after inhalation, and the odds ratio estimate of the lung cancer incidence rate ratio was 7.1 (95% CI 3.4–14.8, P < 0.001) for an estimated average urine concentration of 825 microg/l following ingestion. The slopes of the linear dose-response relationships between excess relative risk (RR-1) for lung cancer and urinary arsenic concentration were similar for the two routes of exposure. We conclude that lung cancer risks probably depend on absorbed dose, and not on whether inorganic arsenic is ingested or inhaled.

Letter to Professor Alastair Summerlee

Letter to Professor Alastair Summerlee, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
November 21, 2010
To
Professor Alastair Summerlee
President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guelph
president@uoguelph.ca
Mr. President,
Having read the announcement that the University of Guelph accepted a $1-million gift from Kinross Gold Corporation [1], I feel obliged to inform you that this gift has been made possible thanks to questionable Kinross’ mining activities, especially at my home town Paracatu, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

MIMER notes November 19, 2010: Arsenic in urine

Urinary arsenic determined in a large US survey

Urinary concentrations of different forms of arsenic have been determined for the United States populations from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES). The results have been published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the CDC Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals ("the fourth report", published 2010). For the first time, the fourth report provides comprehensive information about arsenic presence. Urinary total arsenic varied from 5.66 mcg/l (equivalent to 6.58 mcg/g of creatinine) in children to 164 mcg/l (98.8 mcg/g of creatinine) in adults. Some children presented with total urinary arsenic concentration of 178 mcg/l (188 mcg/g creatinine). Arsenic has been associated with all top 10 causes of death worldwide, including cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, dementias and cancer. The ranges for arsenic are provided so the clinician can compare a patient's readings against national percentiles. The data will help the clinician identify current exposures and monitor the effectiveness of treatments.
Source:
http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/data_tables/URXUAS_DataTables.html [accessed 19 November 19, 2010]

Spontaneous pregnancy loss in humans and exposure to arsenic

Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2010 Oct 1. [Epub ahead of print]
Spontaneous pregnancy loss in humans and exposure to arsenic in drinking water.
Bloom MS, Fitzgerald EF, Kim K, Neamtiu I, Gurzau ES.
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY, United States; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY, United States.

Abstract
Maternal exposure to high concentrations of inorganic arsenic (iAs) in naturally contaminated drinking groundwater sources has been associated with an increased risk for the spontaneous loss of clinically recognized pregnancies in several epidemiologic studies. Whereas a large worldwide population depends on drinking groundwater sources with high levels of iAs contamination, in quantities exceeding 10 parts per billion (ppb), an even larger population is likely to be exposed to mild-moderate drinking groundwater iAs contamination, in quantities <10ppb. Only a single epidemiologic study to date has considered spontaneous pregnancy loss in association with consumption of drinking water with mild-moderate iAs contamination; the vast majority of published studies of spontaneous loss addressed populations with substantial exposure. The aim of this review is to evaluate the published literature to assess the plausibility for a causal association between exposure to iAs-contaminated drinking water and the spontaneous loss of clinically recognized pregnancy. In spite of numerous methodologic limitations resulting from circumstance or design, a consistent pattern of increased risk for loss is suggested by the epidemiologic literature. Moreover, these study results are corroborated by a large number of experimental studies, albeit usually conducted at concentrations exceeding that to which humans are exposed via contaminated drinking water. In this review, we discuss sources of human iAs exposure, highlight several experimental studies pertinent to a possible causal link between iAs and spontaneous pregnancy loss in humans, and provide a critical review of published epidemiologic studies of pregnancy loss and drinking water iAs exposures, and their limitations. Based on a review of the published literature, we recommend the future conduct of a two-stage comprehensive prospective study of low-moderate iAs drinking water exposure and spontaneous pregnancy loss.

Behaviour of arsenic in forested catchments

Environ Pollut. 2010 Oct 5. [Epub ahead of print]
Behaviour of arsenic in forested catchments following a high-pollution period.
Novak M, Erbanova L, Fottova D, Cudlin P, Kubena A.
Department of Geochemistry, Czech Geological Survey, Geologicka 6, 152 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic.


Abstract
Due to high availability of adsorption sites, forested catchments could be net sinks for pollutant arsenic both during the period of increasing and decreasing pollution. We tested this hypothesis along a north-south pollution gradient in spruce die-back affected areas of Central Europe. For two water years (2007-2008), we monitored As fluxes via spruce-canopy throughfall, open-area precipitation, and runoff in four headwater catchments (Czech Republic). Since 1980, atmospheric As inputs decreased 26 times in the north, and 13 times in the south. Arsenic export by runoff was similar to atmospheric inputs at three sites, resulting in a near-zero As mass balance. One site exhibited a net export of As (2.2 g ha(-1) yr(-1)). In contrast, the preceding period (1995-2006) showed much higher As fluxes, and higher As export. Czech catchments do not serve as net sinks of atmospheric As. A considerable proportion of old industrial arsenic is flushed out of the soil.