Urinary arsenic species in an arsenic-affected area of West Bengal, India (part III)

Abstract

Arsenic contamination of groundwater has long been reported in the Mushidabad district of West Bengal, India. We visited 13 arsenic-affected families in the Makrampur village of the Beldanga block in Mushidabad during 18-21 December 2001 and collected five shallow tubewell-water samples used general household purposes, four deep tubewell-water samples used for drinking and cooking purposes, and 44 urine samples from those families. The arsenic concentrations in the five shallow tubewell-water samples ranged from 18.0 to 408.4 ppb and those in the four deep tubewell-water samples were from 5.2 to 9.6 ppb. The average arsenite (arsenic(III)), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) and arsenate (arsenic(V)) in urine were 28.7 ng mg -1 , 168.6 ng mg -1 , 25.0 ng mg -1 and 4.6 ng mg -1 creatinine respectively. The average total arsenic was 227.0 ng mg -1 creatinine. On comparison of the ratio of (MMA + DMA) to total arsenic, the average proportion was 86.7 ± 9.2% (mean plus/minus to residual standard deviation, n = 43). The exception was data for one boy, whose proportion was 8.0%. One woman excreted the highest total arsenic, at 2890.0 ng mg -1 creatinine. When using 43 of the urine samples (the exception being the one sample obtained from the boy) there were significantly positive correlations (p < 0.01) between arsenic(III) and MMA, between arsenic(III) and DMA and between MMA and DMA.