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Significance of the prime factors regulating arsenic toxicity and associated health risk: a hypothesis-based investigation in a critically exposed population of West Bengal, India

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Abstract

The suffering from arsenic toxicity is a long-standing concern in Asian countries. The role of the key factors (arsenic intake, age and sex) regulating arsenic toxicity is aimed to evaluate for a severely exposed population from Murshidabad district, West Bengal. Mean arsenic concentrations in drinking water supplied through tube well, Sajaldhara treatment plant and pipeline were observed as 208, 27 and 54 µg/l, respectively. Urinary arsenic concentration had been observed as < 3–42.1, < 3–56.2 and < 3–80 µg/l in children, teenagers and adults, respectively. Mean concentrations of hair and nail arsenic were found to be 0.84 and 2.38 mg/kg; 3.07 and 6.18 mg/kg; and 4.41 and 9.07 mg/kg, respectively, for the studied age-groups. Water arsenic was found to be associated with hair and nail (r = 0.57 and 0.60), higher than urine (r = 0.37). Arsenic deposition in biomarkers appeared to be dependent on age; however, it is independent of sex. Principal component analysis showed a direct relationship between dietary intake of arsenic and chronic biomarkers. Nail was proved as the most fitted biomarker of arsenic toxicity by Dunn’s post hoc test. Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis and cluster analysis showed that the most significant factor regulating health risk is ‘concentration of arsenic’ than ‘exposure duration’, ‘body weight’ and ‘intake rate’. The contribution of arsenic concentration towards calculated health risk was highest in teenagers (45.5–61.2%), followed by adults (47.8–49%) and children (21–27.6%). Regular and sufficient access to arsenic-safe drinking water is an immediate need for the affected population.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request and it can be shared as per the requirement.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the help of ‘field workers’, especially the team members of ‘Bilchatra Anneshan Janaakalyan Samity, a Non-Government Organization (NGO) located in Raninagar for collection of required samples in the field. The authors further acknowledge the studied population for showing their willingness to be involved into the work and providing the samples and related information to carry forward the study. The local Raninagar II gram panchayat office and Block Development Office are well acknowledged. Financial supports from ‘Department of Science & Technology’, Government of West Bengal (Research Project Grant Memo No. 262 (Sanc.)/ST/P/S&T/1G-64/2017, dated 25/3/2018) and Inter University Research Project, RUSA (R-11/1092/19, dated 06/08/2019).

Funding

‘Department of Science & Technology’, Government of West Bengal (Research Project Grant Memo No. 262 (Sanc.)/ST/P/S&T/1G-64/2017, dated 25/3/2018) and Inter University Research Project, RUSA (R-11/1092/19, dated 06/08/2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700032, India

    Antara Das, Madhurima Joardar, Nilanjana Roy Chowdhury, Deepanjan Mridha, Ayan De, Sharmistha Majumder & Tarit Roychowdhury

  2. National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani, India

    Jagyashila Das

  3. Department of Community Medicine, KPC Medical College and Hospital, Jadavpur, Kolkata, 700032, India

    Kunal Kanti Majumdar

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  1. Antara Das
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Contributions

AD did research planning, analytical work, statistical presentation and initial draft preparation. MJ done analysis, initial draft preparation and checking. NRC contributed to analysis and draft checking. DM and AD were involved in field survey, collection of samples and information from fields. SM did draft checking and data evaluation. JD performed statistical presentation. KKM did identification of dermatological skin manifestations and health check-up of the studied populations. TR did overall supervising the entire research study, monitoring the research project and work plan, manuscript revision and correction.

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Correspondence to Tarit Roychowdhury.

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The health guideline for human experiment has been followed, and all procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institute and international ethical standards.

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All the authors are agreed to publish this work in this well renowned journal and no part of this manuscript is either published earlier, or under consideration anywhere. The authors affirm that human research participants provided informed consent for publication of the images in Supplementary Fig. S3.

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Das, A., Joardar, M., Chowdhury, N.R. et al. Significance of the prime factors regulating arsenic toxicity and associated health risk: a hypothesis-based investigation in a critically exposed population of West Bengal, India. Environ Geochem Health 45, 3423–3446 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01422-6

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