Abstract
Exposure to elements in groundwater (toxic or beneficial) is commonplace yet, outside of lead and mercury, little research has examined the impact of many commonly occurring environmental exposures on mental abilities during the aging process. Inorganic arsenic is a known neurotoxin that has both neurodevelopmental and neurocognitive consequences. The aim of this study was to examine the potential association between current and long-term arsenic exposure and detailed neuropsychological functioning in a sample of rural-dwelling adults and elders. Data were analyzed from 434 participants (133 men and 301 women) of Project FRONTIER, a community-based participatory research study of the epidemiology of health issues of rural-dwelling adults and elders. The results of the study showed that GIS-based groundwater arsenic exposure (current and long-term) was significantly related to poorer scores in language, visuospatial skills, and executive functioning. Additionally, long-term low-level exposure to arsenic was significantly correlated to poorer scores in global cognition, processing speed and immediate memory. The finding of a correlation between arsenic and the domains of executive functioning and memory is of critical importance as these are cognitive domains that reflect the earliest manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease. Additional work is warranted given the population health implications associated with long-term low-level arsenic exposure.
Highlights
The detrimental impact of acute high-level exposure to arsenic on health is well established; prior work has documented adverse consequences of prolonged exposure to groundwater arsenic at levels below the current U.S standard of 10 μg/L
These data demonstrate that the two counties selected for this study provide an optimal naturalistic setting to investigate long-term low-level arsenic exposure from groundwater
Our findings suggest an association between low-level arsenic exposure and neuropsychological functioning, as originally hypothesized
Summary
The detrimental impact of acute high-level exposure to arsenic on health is well established; prior work has documented adverse consequences of prolonged exposure to groundwater arsenic at levels below the current U.S standard of 10 μg/L. Chronic exposure to low-levels of arsenic through drinking water is common in the U.S where 13.6% of sampled public water-supply systems exceeded 5 μg/L and 25% exceeded 2 μg/L [1] Such exposure has been found to increase risk for a range of diseases including hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, skin melanosis, cancer, and poorer cognition [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. It has been proposed that exposure to environmental toxins, including arsenic, has caused a ―silent pandemic‖ in modern society that has gone undetected [9] This circumstance has likely remained unnoticed because the neurodevelopmental and neurotoxic consequences of in utero exposure (along with chronic lifetime exposure) may not become evident until neuronal attrition associated with aging occurs [9]. The purpose of this study was to take a first-step towards addressing this gap in the public health literature
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