Seo Jeong-Wook, Hong Young-Seoub
Environmental Health Center, Dong-A University, Busan 49201, Korea.
Department of Preventive Medicine, Dong-A University, Busan 49201, Korea.
Toxics. 2021 Jun 11;9(6):138. doi: 10.3390/toxics9060138.
Arsenic (As) exists as highly toxic chemical species. Chronic exposure to its inorganic form can cause multiple organ failure and skin cancer in humans, warranting the need to determine the toxicity of each chemical species. This study evaluated the proportions of exposure to four chemical species of As (cAs), namely arsenite (AsIII), arsenate (AsV), monomethylarsinic acid (MMA), and dimethylarsenic acid (DMA), and it confirmed the necessity of evaluating biological exposure to cAs. Urine samples were collected from 457 subjects residing near 103 abandoned metal mines. Hydride generation atomic absorption spectroscopy (HG-AAS) was performed to measure the combined concentration of four cAs (hAs). High-performance liquid chromatography and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS) were performed to determine the concentrations of the individual cAs and the sum of the four cAs (hAs). The proportions of AsV and MMA were relatively higher in the low-hAs concentration section. These findings suggest that hAs, which is mainly used for its cost-efficiency, is limited for evaluating exposure. Though hAs was found to exist in a low concentration, highly toxic AsV and MMA could be observed in high concentrations. Therefore, HPLC-ICP-MS is recommended for assessing cAs in environmentally vulnerable areas such as abandoned metal mines.
砷（As）以剧毒化学形态存在。长期接触其无机形态可导致人体多器官衰竭和皮肤癌，因此有必要确定每种化学形态的毒性。本研究评估了四种砷化学形态（cAs），即亚砷酸盐（AsIII）、砷酸盐（AsV）、一甲基砷酸（MMA）和二甲基砷酸（DMA）的暴露比例，并证实了评估cAs生物暴露的必要性。从居住在103座废弃金属矿附近的457名受试者中采集尿液样本。采用氢化物发生原子吸收光谱法（HG-AAS）测量四种cAs（hAs）的总浓度。采用高效液相色谱和电感耦合等离子体质谱法（HPLC-ICP-MS）测定各cAs的浓度以及四种cAs的总和（hAs）。在低hAs浓度区间，AsV和MMA的比例相对较高。这些发现表明，主要因其成本效益而使用的hAs在评估暴露方面存在局限性。尽管发现hAs浓度较低，但可观察到高浓度的剧毒AsV和MMA。因此，建议在废弃金属矿等环境脆弱地区采用HPLC-ICP-MS评估cAs。
