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The ability to mount an immune response to influenza A (H1N1) infection is significantly compromised by a low level of arsenic exposure that commonly occurs through drinking contaminated well water, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Dartmouth Medical School have found.
"When a normal person or mouse is infected with the flu, they immediately develop an immune response," says Hamilton, in which immune cells rush to the lungs and produce chemicals that help fight the infection. However, in mice that had ingested 100 ppb (parts per billion) arsenic in their drinking water for five weeks, the immune response to H1N1 infection was initially feeble, and when a response finally did kick in days later, it was "too robust and too late," Hamilton says. "There was a massive infiltration of immune cells to the lungs and a massive inflammatory response, which led to bleeding and damage in the lung." Morbidity over the course of the infection was significantly higher for the arsenic-exposed animals than the normal animals.
"One thing that did strike us, when we heard about the recent H1N1 outbreak, is Mexico has large areas of very high arsenic in their well water, including the areas where the flu first cropped up. We don't know that the Mexicans who got the flu were drinking high levels of arsenic, but it's an intriguing notion that this may have contributed," Hamilton says.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers 10 ppb arsenic in drinking water "safe," yet concentrations of 100 ppb and higher are commonly found in well water in regions where arsenic is geologically abundant, including upper New England (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine), Florida, and large parts of the upper Midwest, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountains, Hamilton says.
Source: Science Daily
The harmful chemical arsenic, once used to treat lumber, and now primarily used in pesticides, can make its way into the ground and linger for decades, turning clean soil into tainted dirt.
Source: Science Daily
Planting ferns can be a cheaper, greener way to soak up poisons such as arsenic from the soil. Ferns absorb arsenic through their roots and store it in their leaves, which can then be cut off.
Source: Science Daily
rice from the United States largely contains organic arsenic, which is less easily absorbed into the body and excreted more rapidly than inorganic arsenic. Rice contaminated with inorganic arsenic prevails in Asia and Europe.
Source: Science Daily
Amid recent reports of dangerous levels of arsenic being found in some baby rice products, scientists have found a protein in plants that could help to reduce the toxic content of crops grown in environments with high levels of this poisonous metal.
Source: Science Daily
According to the WHO, arsenic has been found approaching or above guideline limits in drinking water in Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Chile, China, Hungary, India, Mexico, Peru, Thailand, and the US.
Source
A health expert says 10 to 20 per cent of the Australian population could catch swine flu before a vaccine is available.
4.1 What happens to arsenic absorbed by the body?
The amount of arsenic absorbed into the body from inhaled airborne particles is highly dependent on two factors, the size of particles and their solubility. The size of the particles determines how far into the lungs they can penetrate – the further they penetrate the more likely arsenic is to be absorbed. The solubility of the particles in the fluid lining the lungs determines how easily arsenic will be absorbed into the blood stream.
In the gut, soluble arsenic compounds from food and beverages are rapidly and extensively absorbed into the blood stream. In humans and most common laboratory animals, inorganic arsenic is metabolized via two main types of reaction: (1) conversion of the pentavalent form of arsenic - arsenate - to the trivalent form - arsenite, and (2) methylation, i.e. addition of a methyl group comprising one atom of carbon and three of hydrogen (-CH3) to the trivalent form. After methylation arsenic can be rapidly eliminated from the body with the urine. There can be large differences between individual humans in their capacity for methylation that is most likely due to differences in enzyme capacity in the body. It is not clear if children have a reduced capacity for methylation compared with adults. Studies suggest that the main pathway for getting rid of arsenic from the body, methylation, may be inhibited at high exposures. The uptake and elimination of arsenic depends on its chemical form, particularly at high exposures.
For example, ingested organic arsenic compounds are much less extensively metabolized and more rapidly eliminated in urine than inorganic arsenic in both laboratory animals and humans. In the case of inorganic arsenic, the trivalent forms pass more rapidly into the tissues compared with the pentavalent forms.
4.2 What are the indicators of arsenic exposure?
The amounts of arsenic or its metabolites in blood, hair, nails and urine are used as indicators - biomarkers - of arsenic exposure. Blood arsenic is only useful for indicating either acute poisoning or repeated high-level exposures occurring over a long period. This is because arsenic rapidly disappears from blood.
Arsenic persists longer in hair and nails, which can, therefore, be used as indicators of past exposure. The concentration of arsenic, along a hair may be used to estimate the timing of an exposure.
The best estimate of recent exposure to inorganic arsenic is to measure it and its specific chemical metabolites in urine. However, consumption of certain seafood high in organic arsenic, such as seaweed or mollusks, produces one of the same metabolites as inorganic arsenic and may therefore exaggerate estimates of inorganic arsenic exposure in some people at certain times. Such foods should be avoided for 2–3 days before urine sampling.
SOURCE.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers 10 ppb arsenic in drinking water "safe," yet concentrations of 100 ppb and higher are commonly found in well water in regions where arsenic is geologically abundant, including upper New England (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine), Florida, and large parts of the Upper Midwest, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountains, Hamilton says.