VITO Health, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium.
VITO Health, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium.
Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2023 Mar;248:114115. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2023.114115. Epub 2023 Jan 21.
The European Joint Programme HBM4EU coordinated and advanced human biomonitoring (HBM) in Europe in order to provide science-based evidence for chemical policy development and improve chemical management. Arsenic (As) was selected as a priority substance under the HBM4EU initiative for which open, policy relevant questions like the status of exposure had to be answered. Internal exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs), measured as Toxic Relevant Arsenic (TRA) (the sum of As(III), As(V), MMA, DMA) in urine samples of teenagers differed among the sampling sites (BEA (Spain) > Riksmaten adolescents (Sweden), ESTEBAN (France) > FLEHS IV (Belgium), SLO CRP (Slovenia)) with geometric means between 3.84 and 8.47 μg/L. The ratio TRA to TRA + arsenobetaine or the ratio TRA to total arsenic varied between 0.22 and 0.49. Main exposure determinants for TRA were the consumption of rice and seafood. When all studies were combined, Pearson correlation analysis showed significant associations between all considered As species. Higher concentrations of DMA, quantitatively a major constituent of TRA, were found with increasing arsenobetaine concentrations, a marker for organic As intake, e.g. through seafood, indicating that other sources of DMA than metabolism of inorganic As exist, e.g. direct intake of DMA or via the intake of arsenosugars or -lipids. Given the lower toxicity of DMA(V) versus iAs, estimating the amount of DMA not originating from iAs, or normalizing TRA for arsenobetaine intake could be useful for estimating iAs exposure and risk. Comparing urinary TRA concentrations with formerly derived biomonitoring equivalent (BE) for non-carcinogenic effects (6.4 μg/L) clearly shows that all 95th percentile exposure values in the different studies exceeded this BE. This together with the fact that cancer risk may not be excluded even at lower iAs levels, suggests a possible health concern for the general population of Europe.
欧洲联合人体生物监测计划 HBM4EU 协调并推进了欧洲的人体生物监测工作，以便为化学政策制定提供科学依据，并改善化学物质管理。砷（As）被选为 HBM4EU 计划的优先物质，该计划需要回答一些公开的、与政策相关的问题，例如暴露状况。青少年尿液中无机砷（iAs）的内暴露，以尿中总砷（TRA）（三价砷（As(III)）、五价砷（As(V)）、一甲基砷酸（MMA）、二甲基砷酸（DMA）的总和）来衡量，在不同采样点存在差异（西班牙 BEA > 瑞典 Riksmaten 青少年，法国 ESTEBAN > 比利时 FLEHS IV，斯洛文尼亚 SLO CRP），几何平均值在 3.84 和 8.47μg/L 之间。TRA 与 TRA+砷甜菜碱的比值或 TRA 与总砷的比值在 0.22 至 0.49 之间变化。TRA 的主要暴露决定因素是大米和海鲜的摄入。当所有研究合并时，Pearson 相关分析显示所有考虑的砷物种之间存在显著关联。随着砷甜菜碱浓度的增加，TRA 中 DMA 的浓度也随之升高，DMA 是有机砷摄入的标志物，例如通过海鲜摄入，这表明 DMA 存在其他来源，而不仅仅是无机砷的代谢，例如直接摄入 DMA 或通过摄入砷糖或 -脂类。鉴于 DMA(V)相对于 iAs 的毒性较低，估计不是由 iAs 产生的 DMA 量，或 TRA 与砷甜菜碱摄入量的归一化，可能有助于估计 iAs 暴露和风险。将尿 TRA 浓度与以前推导的非致癌效应生物监测等效值（6.4μg/L）进行比较，清楚地表明，不同研究中所有第 95 百分位数的暴露值都超过了这一 BE 值。再加上即使在较低的 iAs 水平下也不能排除癌症风险的事实，这表明欧洲普通人群可能存在健康隐患。
