Researchers find link between arsenic in drinking water and gallbladder cancer
High arsenic concentration in drinking water may be related to gallbladder cancer, a study conducted in Bihar and Assam has revealed.
This study investigated exposure to arsenic in drinking water and its connection with gallbladder cancer risk among participants who have lived for 15 to 70 years in the two arsenic-affected states of Bihar and Assam, Ashok Kumar Ghosh, Chairman of the Bihar State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB), told news agency PTI.
The study was conducted by Indian scientists from the Centre for Environmental Health (CEH), Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), and Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said Ghosh, who was also a member of the team.
18 Bihar districts affected
In Bihar, the study was carried out across 38 districts. Of these, 18 have high arsenic concentration in groundwater. In these 18 districts, the arsenic concentration in the water is higher than the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) permissible limit of 10 microgram per litre in drinking water, Ghosh said. The worst-affected districts are Buxar, Bhojpur, and Bhagalpur. The highest arsenic contamination (1906 ug/L) in groundwater is in Buxar, he added.
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Now, the study has found that arsenic could be a possible risk factor for gallbladder cancer. Public health intervention in the form of removing arsenic from drinking water is the need of the hour in the endemic regions of Bihar and Assam. Tackling arsenic pollution may help reduce the burden of several health outcomes, Ghosh said.
Ghosh added that the research team collected and analysed 46,000 groundwater samples from different areas of the 18 districts before arriving at the conclusion.
The results have been published in the Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention Journal of the American Association for Cancer Research on the relationship between arsenic in drinking water and gallbladder cancer.
(With agency inputs)
