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. Our findings shed light on critical time windows of arsenic exposure that contribute to heart disease and inform the ongoing arsenic risk assessment by the EPA. It further reinforces the importance of considering non-cancer outcomes, and specifically cardiovascular disease, which is the number one cause of death in the U.
S. and globally. This study offers resounding proof of the need for regulatory standards in protecting health and provides evidence in support of reducing the current limit to further eliminate significant risk.
" Danielle Medgyesi, a doctoral Fellow in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School According to the American Heart Association and other leading health agenc.