Toxicology of Arsenic

Presented by
Airin Akther
Roll : 22139
Session : 2022-2023
Department of Occupational and Environmental Health

Estd.1974
National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM)
Mohakhali, Dhaka-1212,Bangladesh
Contents:
• Introduction
• General toxicology of arsenic
• Health and Social Problems with Arsenic in Drinking Water
• Guidelines and standards
• Commonly used arsenic test kits
• Arsenic removal technologies
• Arsenic removal systems
• Mitigating the arsenic problem: social and institutional aspects
• Future perspectives
• Conclusion
Introduction:
• Arsenic poisoning is a significant global health issue for both people and animals
due to environmental and occupational exposure from arsenic-
polluted water, air, soil, and food products. In plain, hilly, and mountainous environments,
as well as shallow wells in endemic regions, water taken from very deep wells frequently
contains inorganic arsenic (As) from geological sources (Kumari & Bharti 2022).
• There are three major types of arsenic, such as inorganic salt, organic salt (monomethyl
arsenic, which is prevalent in sources of food in the water, and gaseous form (arsine).
• Presence of arsenic in drinking water is imperceptible, tasteless and odorless. A big
population ingesting untreated water will inevitably be exposed for an extended period of
time, resulting in endemic arsenicosis (Kumari & Bharti 2022).
• According to research, prolonged exposure to arsenic considerably raises the risk of
developing cancer, as well as heart, lung, kidney, and liver diseases, and dying from them.
Arsenic exposure has also been linked to unusual obstetric outcomes like spontaneous
abortion, stillbirths, embryonic death, pregnancy hypertension, and gestational diabetes in
many developing countries (Kumari & Bharti 2022).
• As a result, it's important to create a reliable epidemiological database so that arsenic
toxicity can be effectively prevented and controlled.
General toxicology of arsenic:
• Arsenobetaine, an organic form of arsenic commonly found in shellfish and other seafood is
quickly excreted by humans and is considered essentially nontoxic. Inorganic arsenic, either
trivalent or pentavalent state is associated with acute and chronic toxic effects. Most often,
exposure to inorganic arsenic comes from either ingestion of contaminated or inhaling it from
industrial sources.
• Inorganic arsenic is quickly absorbed after consumption and disseminated throughout the body's
organs. After being ingested, arsenic undergoes a two-step methylation process that results in the
formation of monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA). ). Biomethylation
is initially detoxification and deactivation process of toxic arsenic species. Methylated end
products of inorganic arsenic are MMA(V) and DMA(V) that are excreted in urine as the
biomarker of chronic arsenic exposure, but not MMA (V). MMA (III) is the intermediate product
in methylation process. The toxicity of arsenicals include arsenite (III), arsenate(V), MMA(V),
DMA(V) and MMA (III) are determined by using the criteria of leakage of lactate
dehydrogenase(LDH), intracellular potassium(K+) leakage and mitochrondrial metabolism of
tetrazolium salt in change human hepatocytes.
General toxicology of arsenic Cont.
• The order of toxicity of arsenicals is:
MMA(III) > Arsenite (III) > Arsenate (V) >MMA(V) = DMA(V)
In arsenic biotransformation the intermediate product monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) is
highly toxic than other arsenicals, which might be responsible for the arsenic induced
carcinogenesis and other health effects.
Health and Social Problems with Arsenic in Drinking Water:
• Human exposure to arsenic can take place through ingestion, inhalation or skin adsorption;
However, ingesting arsenic is the most common way to consume it.
• Acute toxic consequences of arsenic at high doses might include gastrointestinal symptoms (such as
low appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, etc), disturbances of the circulatory and neurological systems or
death.

Acute toxicity for different arsenic compounds:

Arsenic form Oral LD50 (mg/kg body weight)
Sodium Arsenite 15-40
Arsenic Trioxide 34
Calcium Arsenate 20-800
Arsenobetane >10,000
Health and Social Problems with Arsenic in Drinking Water Cont.
Prolonged exposure to extremely low levels of arsenic in drinking water poses a health risk as
well. The first visible symptoms caused by exposure to low arsenic concentrations in drinking
water are abnormal black-brown skin pigmentation known as melanosis and hardening of palms
and soles known as keratosis. If the arsenic intake continues, skin de-pigmentation develops
resulting in white spots that looks like raindrops (medically described as leukomelanosis).
Guidelines and standards:
• Because of the proven and widespread negative health effects on humans, in 1993, the WHO
lowered the health-based provisional guideline for a “safe” limit for arsenic concentration in
drinking water from 50 μg/L to 10 μg/L (i.e. from 0.05 mg/l to 0.01 mg/l).

• WHO retained this provisional guideline level in the latest edition of its standards (WHO 1993;
WHO 2004). The WHO provisional guideline of 10 μg/L has been adopted as a national standard
by most countries, including Japan, Jordan, Laos, Mongolia, Namibia, Syria and the USA, and by
the European Union (EU).

• Implementation of the new WHO guideline value of 10 μg/L is not currently feasible for a number
of countries strongly affected by the arsenic problem, including Bangladesh and India, which retain
the 50μg/L limit. Other countries have not updated their drinking water standards recently and
retain the older WHO guideline of 50 μg/L (UN 2001).
Commonly used arsenic test kits:
Test Kit Range of measurement(µg/L)

MERCK (Germany) 5 – 500

HACH 10 - 500
Quick(USA) 10 – 1000
AIIH&PH Kit(India) Yes/No
NIPSOM(Bangladesh) 10 - 700
GPL(Bangladesh) 10 - 2500
Arsenator(UK) <10 -500
Arsenic removal technologies:
Technologies for removing arsenic from drinking water include:
• Precipitation processes, including coagulation/filtration, direct filtration, coagulation assisted
microfiltration, enhanced coagulation, lime softening, and enhanced lime softening.
• Adsorptive processes, including adsorption onto activated alumina, activated carbon and
iron/manganese oxide based or coated filter media.
• Ion exchange processes, specifically anion exchange.
• Membrane filtration, including nano-filtration, reverse osmosis and electrodialysis reversal.
• Alternative treatment processes, especially greensand filtration.
• In situ (sub-surface) arsenic removal.
• Biological arsenic removal.
Arsenic removal systems:
The technologies for removing arsenic from household point-of-use (POU) systems and
centralized treatment systems are also covered in section 7. A distribution system is typically
connected to centralized treatment facilities that supply drinking water to a city, a community, or
multiple communities (Ahsan 2002). Household point-of-use systems work with on-site sources
like tubewells to supply water to a single or a number of nearby homes

1. Centralised arsenic removal systems include

• Coagulation-separation arsenic removal systems

• Adsorption based arsenic removal systems

2. Household level point-of-use (POU) treatment systems

Mitigating the arsenic problem: social and institutional aspects:
• Public awareness
• Sharing arsenic-free point sources
• Arsenic removal at household level
• Communal plant
• Institutional aspects
Future perspectives:
• Effective legislation, regulation, and identification of the areas where the excess level of arsenic
is found in drinking water are necessary. Failure to control the exposure from high MCL arsenic
water will lead to future cases of arsenicosis.
• Exposure monitoring and possible intervention for the reduction in further exposure of arsenic
can reduce the arsenic can reduce the arsenic toxicity and a significant step towards prevention.
National and international co-operation is needed to develop effective strategies for arsenic
toxicity prevention.
Conclusion:
• Arsenic toxicity is an important worldwide health problem of humans and animals due to
environmental and occupational exposure through arsenic polluted water, air, soil and food
items.
• It has a multifaceted health impact on animals, human beings, and the environment. Therefore,
various experimental and clinical studies were undertaken and had been undergoing to
understand its pathogenesis, identify the key biomarkers, medical and economic impact on the
affected populations, timely detection and amelioration.
• However, no conclusive information is available for prevention and control of arsenic toxicity,
mainly due to complex epidemiology, scattered approach, and repetitive work. Hence, there is a
need for literature that exclusively brings information on epidemiology, pathogenesis, and
ameliorative measures of arsenic toxicity, which can help researchers and policymakers for
effective future planning research and community control programs.
References:

Hopenhayn, C, 2006 ‘Arsenic in Drinking Water: Impact on Human Health’ ELEMENTS, Vol. 2,
pp. 103 – 107

Kumari, B & Bharti, VK, ‘Environmental toxicology of arsenic: current understanding of

toxicology, detection, and remedial strategies,’ Biotecnology and Genetic Engineering reviews
on February 21st, 2022, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02648725.2022.2147664

Petrusevski, B, Sharma, S, Schippers JC & Shodt K, 2007 ‘Arsenic in Drinking Water’ Thematic
overview paper, 17.

Steinmaus, C, Moore L, Hopenhayn-Rich, C, Biggs, ML & Smith, AH, 2000 ‘Arsenic in

Drinking Water and Bladder Cancer’ Cancer Investigation, Vol. 18(2), pp. 174-182

Singh, N, Kumar, D & Sahu, AP, 2007 ‘Arsenic in the environment: Effects on human health and
possible prevention’ Journal of Environmental Biology, Vol. 28(2), pp. 359- 365
Thank You