Total Urinary Arsenic and Inorganic Arsenic Concentrations and Birth Outcomes in Pregnant Women of Tacna, Peru: A Cross-Sectional Study

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Diego Fano-Sizgorich, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia; Cinthya Vasquez-Velasquez, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia; Sandra Yucra, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia; Vanessa Vasquez, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia; Patricio Tokeshi, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia; Julio Aguilar, Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohmann; Claudio Ramirez-Atencio, Gobierno Reg Tacna; Dana Barr, Emory University; Gustavo F. Gonzales, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-09-01
• Publisher: Springer
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2020.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12403-020-00377-2
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Exposure and Health
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 133
• End Page: 140
• Grant/Funding Information: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the NIH under Award Number for research Grant U01 TW0101 07.; DBB was further supported by NIH Grant P30 ES019776. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
• Keywords: Arsenic exposure; 1 N6AMT1 Polymorphisms; Metabolites; Cohort; Tacna; Risk; Science & Technology; Drinking water; Threat; Birth outcomes; Water Resources; Associations; States; Urinary arsenic; Physical Sciences; Methyltransferase AS3MT; Exposure
• Research Categories: Environmental Sciences; Health Sciences, Occupational Health and Safety; Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

Inorganic arsenic exposure has been linked to the development of several health conditions, including adverse birth outcomes, and around 150 million of people worldwide are exposed to levels above the WHO suggested limit of 10 μg/L. A recent risk assessment in pregnant women of Tacna, of this same population performed by our group, found that 70.25% were exposed to arsenic concentrations in drinking water ≥ 25 μg/L. The present study aimed to evaluate the relationship between prenatal total urinary arsenic (U-tAs) and inorganic arsenic (U-iAs) with adverse birth outcomes. A total of 147 pregnant women from the province of Tacna, Peru, during February–March, 2019, were evaluated for U-tAs and U-iAs exposure during their second trimester of pregnancy, while the birth records of their children were collected from the local hospital. The geometric mean U-tAs was 43.97 ± 25.88 μg/L (P50 22.30, range 5.99–181.94 μg/L) and U-iAs was 5.27 ± 2.91 μg/L. Controlling for maternal age, pre-pregnancy BMI, parity, mother’s education, and newborn sex, no relationship was observed between tertile of U-tAs and the birth outcomes considered, although we found an apparent but statistically non-significant dose–response relationship for small for gestational age 2.38% (95% CI 0.003, 0.16), versus 7.32% (95% CI 0.02, 0.21%), and versus 8.57% (95% CI 0.03, 0.25%). This finding requires further evaluation considering other factors such as metabolic arsenic species, additional maternal covariates, and ethnicity.