Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIM: In Uruguay, safe drinking water is supplied to 94% of the population by the state company. However, some rural areas didn´t have this “official” water supply and people drink water from their own wells, that couldn´t be properly controlled. Groundwater quality has been the focus of Medical Geology multidisciplinary research studies in Uruguay, being Arsenic (As) one of its main concerns for health impacts in regions where As levels are higher than WHO recommendations (10 µg/L). The aim of this work was to assess the health risk related to As exposure through drinking water in a small Uruguayan population located in Canelones department. METHODS: The study was performed in San Antonio (1650 rural inhabitants) where we studied 30 private wells with As levels over 10 µg/L. Health risk was estimated with exposure frequency and exposure duration to these wells´ water. The As levels in water were used to calculate the As average daily dose (ADD). The risk was represented by the hazard quotient (HQ) and the cancer risk (CR). HQ was estimated for dermatological manifestations, using As toxicity reference dose of 0.0003 mg/kg/day. Health risk situation was assumed when HQ levels were 1. Cancer risk (CR) was calculated using the cancer slope factor of 1.5 mg/kg/day−1. Values between 10-4 y 10-6 are considered safe. RESULTS:Ten percent of the wells had a HQ greater than 1 if the water is consumed by the residents daily for ten years. The CR was higher than 10−4 if 10 years of residence was assumed, so 93 % of the wells are no safe and the population had an increased cancer risk. CONCLUSIONS:These results showed that more studies linking groundwater As levels and rural population consumption, should be carried out to address risk assessment and health management including biomonitoring of arsenic in urine of exposed population. KEYWORDS: Water quality, Arsenic long-term exposure, Risk assessment, Environmental epidemiology
Published Version
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