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. 2016 May 25;58(2):196-200.
doi: 10.1539/joh.15-0241-OA. Epub 2016 Mar 24.

A biological indicator of inorganic arsenic exposure using the sum of urinary inorganic arsenic and monomethylarsonic acid concentrations

Akihisa Hata  1 , Hidetoshi Kurosawa, Yoko Endo, Kenzo Yamanaka, Noboru Fujitani, Ginji Endo
Affiliations

A biological indicator of inorganic arsenic exposure using the sum of urinary inorganic arsenic and monomethylarsonic acid concentrations

Akihisa Hata et al. J Occup Health. .

Abstract

Objectives: The sum of urinary inorganic arsenic (iAs), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA), and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) concentrations is used for the biological monitoring of occupational iAs exposure. Although DMA is a major metabolite of iAs, it is an inadequate index because high DMA levels are present in urine after seafood consumption. We estimated the urinary iAs+MMA concentration corresponding to iAs exposure.

Methods: We used data from two arsenic speciation analyses of urine samples from 330 Bangladeshi with oral iAs exposure and 172 Japanese workers without occupational iAs exposure using high-performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Results: iAs, MMA, and DMA, but not arsenobetaine (AsBe), were detected in the urine of the Bangladeshi subjects. The correlation between iAs+MMA+DMA and iAs+MMA was obtained as log (iAs+MMA) = 1.038 log (iAs+MMA+DMA) -0.658. Using the regression formula, the iAs+MMA value was calculated as 2.15 and 7.5 μg As/l, corresponding to 3 and 10 μg As/m(3) of exposures, respectively. In the urine of the Japanese workers, arsenic was mostly excreted as AsBe. We used the 95th percentile of iAs+MMA (12.6 μg As/l) as the background value. The sum of the calculated and background values can be used as a biological indicator of iAs exposure.

Conclusion: We propose 14.8 and 20.1 μg As/l of urinary iAs+MMA as the biological indicators of 3 and 10 μg As/m(3) iAs exposure, respectively.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Result of the regression analysis between x = [inorganic arsenic (iAs) + monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) + dimethylarsinic acid (DMA)] and y = [iAs+MMA], log y = 1.038 log x – 0.658 (r = 0.962, p < 0.0001).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. The scatter plots of the data obtained from the Japanese workers; x = iAs + MMA + DMA and y = iAs+MMA on both logarithmic coordinates. The regression formula was log y = 0.725 log x – 0.547 (r = 0.698, p < 0.0001).
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