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Study Environmental Arsenic Exposure Not Likely Cause of Birth Defects
0 Comments | Posted by David in Women's Health
Arsenic has been considered a teratogen, a cause of fetal malformations and birth defects, if pregnant women were exposed to it through environmental sources, such as drinking water. A new study, however, indicates that typical human arsenic exposure is a highly unlikely cause of these teratogenic effects.
A group of researchers, led by Joseph F. Holson, Ph.D., of the WIL Research Laboratory in Ashland, Ohio, evaluated 13 human and 25 animal studies on arsenic toxicity. Their review, published in the July issue of the journal Teratology, found that there were no reliable data to demonstrate the association of arsenic exposure with birth defects, such as spina bifida, in humans.
Their review, which evaluated fetal effects and maternal toxicity, also failed to find any clear relationship between oral or inhalational (breathing) arsenic exposure and adverse pregnancy outcomes in mice, rats and rabbits. The few studies that revealed adverse effects were flawed by poor experimental design or irrelevant route of exposure (injection directly into the blood or abdominal cavity), making them inappropriate for the evaluation of human risk.
Since the authors found no real evidence to incriminate arsenic as a cause of birth defects in humans, they designed a new study using these three sensitive animal species: mice, rats and rabbits. Researchers administered arsenic to pregnant study animals by several routes: single oral dose early in pregnancy, repeated oral doses and repetitive inhalation exposures. These routes are relevant to human exposure.
The researchers found no significant fetal/newborn toxicity at doses that were not also severely toxic to the mothers. These toxic effects resulted in reduced birthweights and pregnancy loss, but there were no neural tube defects produced in any of the offspring via oral or inhalation exposure.
A 10-member peer-review committee reviewed this study before publication; four committee members were also members of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Their conclusion was the same as the authors’ conclusion: “The results indicate that inorganic arsenic exposure is not likely to increase the risk of malformations or other ? toxicity in developing humans under typical exposure scenarios that do not imperil the pregnant woman’s life.”
There is no question that high or occupational levels of arsenic exposure are a potential risk to pregnant women, their unborn children and other humans. This paper however, shows that the low levels of arsenic to which people are sometimes exposed does not put them or their unborn children at any unsafe level of risk.
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