Hata Akihisa, Endo Yoko, Nakajima Yoshiaki, Ikebe Maiko, Ogawa Masanori, Fujitani Noboru, Endo Ginji
Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University, Japan.
J Occup Health. 2007 May;49(3):217-23. doi: 10.1539/joh.49.217.
The toxicity and carcinogenicity of arsenic depend on its species. Individuals living in Japan consume much seafood that contains high levels of organoarsenics. Speciation analysis of urinary arsenic is required to clarify the health risks of arsenic intake. There has been no report of urinary arsenic analysis in Japan using high performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS). We performed speciation analysis of urinary arsenic for 210 Japanese male subjects without occupational exposure using HPLC-ICP-MS. The median values of urinary arsenics were as follows: sodium arsenite (AsIII), 3.5; sodium arsenate (AsV), 0.1; monomethylarsonic acid (MMA), 3.1; dimethylarsinic acid (DMA), 42.6; arsenobetaine (AsBe), 61.3; arsenocholine, trimethylarsine oxide, and unidentified arsenics (others), 5.2; and total arsenic (total As), 141.3 microgAs/l. The median creatinine-adjusted values were as follows: AsIII, 3.0; AsV, 0.1; MMA, 2.6; DMA, 35.9; AsBe, 52.1; others 3.5; and total As, 114.9 microgAs/g creatinine. Our findings indicate that DMA and AsBe levels in Japan are much higher than those found in Italian and American studies. It appears that the high levels of DMA and AsBe observed in Japan may be due in part to seafood intake. ACGIH and DFG set the BEI and BAT values for occupational arsenic exposure as 35 microgAs/l and 50 microgAs/l, respectively, using the sum of inorganic arsenic (iAs), MMA, and DMA. In the general Japanese population, the sums of these were above 50 microgAs/l in 115 (55%) samples. We therefore recommend excluding DMA concentration in monitoring of iAs exposure.
砷的毒性和致癌性取决于其种类。生活在日本的人食用大量含有高浓度有机砷的海产品。为了阐明砷摄入的健康风险，需要对尿砷进行形态分析。日本尚未有使用高效液相色谱-电感耦合等离子体质谱法（HPLC-ICP-MS）进行尿砷分析的报告。我们使用HPLC-ICP-MS对210名无职业暴露的日本男性受试者进行了尿砷形态分析。尿砷的中位数如下：亚砷酸钠（AsIII），3.5；砷酸钠（AsV），0.1；一甲基胂酸（MMA），3.1；二甲基胂酸（DMA），42.6；砷甜菜碱（AsBe），61.3；砷胆碱、三甲基氧化胂和未鉴定的砷（其他），5.2；总砷（总As），141.3μgAs/l。肌酐校正后的中位数如下：AsIII，3.0；AsV，0.1；MMA，2.6；DMA，35.9；AsBe，52.1；其他3.5；总As，114.9μgAs/g肌酐。我们的研究结果表明，日本的DMA和AsBe水平远高于意大利和美国研究中的水平。日本观察到的DMA和AsBe高水平似乎部分归因于海产品的摄入。美国政府工业卫生学家会议（ACGIH）和德国研究联合会（DFG）将职业性砷暴露的生物接触指数（BEI）和生物耐受量（BAT）值分别设定为35μgAs/l和50μgAs/l，使用的是无机砷（iAs）、MMA和DMA的总和。在日本普通人群中，115份（55%）样本中这些物质的总和高于50μgAs/l。因此，我们建议在监测iAs暴露时排除DMA浓度。
