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Speciation of Iodine in High Iodine Groundwater in China Associated with Goitre and Hypothyroidism

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Abstract

Iodine intake affects the occurrence of disease in a population. Excessive iodine intake may be caused by a high iodine content of drinking water. Tap water in few locations in Europe contains up to 139 μg/L mostly bound to humic substances, probably leaching from marine sediments in the aquifers. Even higher iodine contents have been found in Chinese waters, previously shown to associate with goitre and hypothyroidism. The aims were to elucidate speciation of high iodine groundwater from deep wells in China and to compare with high iodine waters from Europe. Water was sampled from eight wells in five villages along Bohai Bay, China. Macro-molecules and low molecular weight (MW) substances were separated by size exclusion chromatography (high performance liquid chromatography, Superose 12 HR 10/30, buffer 0.1 M Tris, pH 7.0). Organic material was evaluated by A280 and iodine in fractions measured by the Ce/As method after alkaline incineration. Iodine content of well water varied from 135 to 880 μg/L (median 287 μg/L). The amount of organic material in water was low with A280, <1–5 mAU. The chromatographic traces were similar between samples: One peak of iodine eluted around K AV 0.65 corresponding to MW 5 kDa (humic substances) and one peak at V total (iodide/low MW substances). The fraction of iodine in macro-molecules, suggested to be humic substances, varied from 8% to 70% (median 27%). Iodine and peak absorbance were associated (p = 0.006). In conclusion, iodine in iodine-rich deep well water in northern China may have marine origin and may associate with humic substances, comparable to shallow well iodine-rich water in Europe. High iodine intake from iodine-rich water suggests the cause of endemic goitre and hypothyroidism in some areas in China being iodine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Endocrinology and Medicine, Aalborg Hospital, Århus University Hospital, Hobrovej 18-22, 9000, Aalborg, Denmark

    Stig Andersen & Peter Laurberg

  2. Department of Life Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Stig Andersen

  3. Department of Endocrinology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shengyang, China

    Haixia Guan & Weiping Teng

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  1. Stig Andersen
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  2. Haixia Guan
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  3. Weiping Teng
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  4. Peter Laurberg
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Correspondence to Stig Andersen.

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Andersen, S., Guan, H., Teng, W. et al. Speciation of Iodine in High Iodine Groundwater in China Associated with Goitre and Hypothyroidism. Biol Trace Elem Res 128, 95–103 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-008-8257-x

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