American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 152, No. 1 : 84-90
Copyright © 2000 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Measurement of Low Levels of Arsenic Exposure: A Comparison of Water and Toenail Concentrations
1 Departments of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH.
2 Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.
3 Research Reactor Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO.
A study was conducted to evaluate toenail arsenic concentrations as a biologic marker of drinking water arsenic exposure. Study subjects were controls in a US population-based case-control study of nonmelanoma skin cancer, randomly selected from drivers' license records (those <65 years of age) and Medicare enrollment files (those 
65 years of age). Between 1994 and 1997, a total of 540 controls were interviewed and toenail samples of sufficient weight were collected from 506 (93.7%) of these. Beginning in 1995, a sample of tap water was taken from the participants' homes; a total of 217 (98.6%) water samples were obtained from the 220 subjects interviewed. Arsenic determinations were made from toenail samples using neutron activation analysis. Water samples were analyzed using hydride-generation magnet sector inductively coupled mass spectrometry. Among 208 subjects with both toenail and water measurements, the correlation (r) between water and nail arsenic was 0.65 (p < 0.001) among those with water arsenic concentrations of 1 µg/liter or higher and 0.08 (p = 0.31) among those with concentrations below 1 µg/liter (overall r = 0.46, p < 0.001). Our data suggest that toenail samples provide a useful biologic marker for quantifying low-level arsenic exposure.
arsenic; epidemiologic studies; metals, heavy
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