Association of Arsenic Levels in Soil and Drinking Water With Urine of Residents in the Vicinity of Abandoned Metal Mines

Abstract

PP-31-124 Background/Aims: Many areas near abandoned metal mines in the middle areas of Korea were contaminated by heavy metals (eg, arsenic [As], zinc). Arsenic contamination was much serious in soil and drinking water. However, little is known how exposure of As in environment has affected residents near abandoned metal mines in Korea. The objectives of this study were to investigate the correlation of As levels in soil and drinking water with those in urine of residents near abandoned metal mines (case); and to compare urinary As levels in case areas to those in reference areas. Methods: As levels in soil and drinking water were obtained from a governmental report in 2005. An average As level per each area was calculated and divided by the regulatory limit of As (the environmental risk index) for statistical analyses. To measure urinary As levels, 2091 and 238 subjects were selected from 73 abandoned metal mines and 2 rural areas without metal mines (reference), respectively. The graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry was used to analyze urinary As levels. Similarly, the geometric mean of urinary As level per each area was calculated. The number of subjects with urinary As levels above limit was counted and normalized by total subjects of the corresponding area (the high risk rate). We performed a linear regression and student t test using SPSS (version 12.0) to achieve 2 study objectives. Results: The geometric mean of urinary As levels for case areas was 7.17 ± 3.7 mg/L, which was significantly higher than this for reference areas (5.97 ± 2.4) (P < 0.05). Conclusion: These results may suggest that residents near abandoned metal mines may be at high risk of As exposure.