Long Term Arsenic Exposure May Be Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease: Study Reveals
Long term exposure to arsenic in water may increase cardiovascular disease and especially heart disease risk even at exposure levels below the federal regulatory limit (10µg/L) according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. This is the first study to describe exposure-response relationships at concentrations below the current regulatory limit and substantiates that prolonged exposure to arsenic in water contributes to the development of ischemic heart disease.
The researchers compared various time windows of exposure, finding that the previous decade of water arsenic exposure up to the time of a cardiovascular disease event contributed the greatest risk. The findings are published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
To evaluate the relationship between long-term arsenic exposure from CWS and cardiovascular disease, the researchers used statewide healthcare administrative and mortality records collected for the California Teachers Study cohort from enrollment through follow-up (1995-2018), identifying fatal and nonfatal cases of ischemic heart disease and cardiovascular disease. Working closely with collaborators at the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), the team gathered water arsenic data from CWS for three decades (1990-2020).
The analysis included 98,250 participants, 6,119 ischemic heart disease cases and 9,936 Cardiovascular disease cases. Leveraging the extensive years of arsenic data available, the team compared time windows of relatively short-term (3-years) to long-term (10-years to cumulative) average arsenic exposure. The study found decade-long arsenic exposure up to the time of a cardiovascular disease event was associated with the greatest risk, finding peak mortality of acute myocardial infarction around a decade after a period of very high arsenic exposure. This provides new insights into relevant exposure windows that are critical to the development of ischemic heart disease.
Those exposed to 1 to <5 µg/L had modestly higher risk of ischemic heart disease, with increases of 5 to 6 percent. Risk jumped to 20 percent among those in the exposure ranges of 5 to <10 µg/L, and more than doubled to 42 percent for those exposed to levels at and above the current EPA limit ≥10µg/L. The relationship was consistently stronger for ischemic heart disease compared to cardiovascular disease, and no evidence of risk for stroke was found, largely consistent with previous research and the conclusions of the current EPA risk assessment.
Reference: Long-term exposure to arsenic in community water supplies and risk of cardiovascular disease among women in the California Teachers Study, Environmental Health Perspectives (2024).
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