Arsenic in the drinking water and congenital heart anomalies

Abstract

Background: There are very few human data on the teratogenic effect of arsenic exposure during pregnancy, though animal data suggest that such an effect may exist. Objectives: to study the possible associations between arsenic content of the drinking water and some congenital anomalies. Methods: Data for the years 1980-2003 were taken from the Hungarian Congenital Abnormality Registry (HCAR). The chosen birth defects were congenital heart anomalies (n=11443), club-foot (pes varus, n=3189) multiplex congenital anomalies (3026), Down syndrome (2008) and congenital hip dislocation (n=4769). Data on arsenic content of the drinking water in the settlements where the mothers of these babies lived during pregnancy were collected from archive data bases of the National Institute of Environmental Health. In 96.5% of cases the settlements were covered by this source of information. A cut-off point of 10µg/L arsenic concentration was chosen for analysing the associations between arsenic exposure and prevalence of the chosen birth defects by logistic regression using STATA/SE 9.2 software. Age of the mother and gender of the baby were adjusted for. Results: A significantly increased risk was observed for congenital heart anomalies in settlements supplied with drinking water with arsenic concentration above 10µg/L. (OR=1.34; 95% C.I.= 1.24-1.46) Both gender (being boys) and age of the mother (positively) were significantly associated with the prevalence of congenital heart abnormalities. Conclusion: Our study support the hypothesis that arsenic content of the supplied drinking water may cause congenital anomalies of the heart.