Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Journal

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Volume

12

Issue

12

Inclusive Pages

15498-15515

DOI

10.3390/ijerph121214990

Abstract

High levels (> 200 µg/L) of inorganic arsenic in drinking water are known to be a cause of human lung cancer, but the evidence at lower levels is uncertain. We have sought the epidemiological studies that have examined the dose-response relationship between arsenic levels in drinking water and the risk of lung cancer over a range that includes both high and low levels of arsenic. Regression analysis, based on six studies identified from an electronic search, examined the relationship between the log of the relative risk and the log of the arsenic exposure over a range of 1-1000 µg/L. The best-fitting continuous meta-regression model was sought and found to be a no-constant linear-quadratic analysis where both the risk and the exposure had been logarithmically transformed. This yielded both a statistically significant positive coefficient for the quadratic term and a statistically significant negative coefficient for the linear term. Sub-analyses by study design yielded results that were similar for both ecological studies and non-ecological studies. Statistically significant X-intercepts consistently found no increased level of risk at approximately 100-150 µg/L arsenic.

Comments

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Arsenic in Drinking Water: Current Perspectives and Future Directions) - From the Publisher'd page.

Reproduced with permission of MDPI-Open Access Publishing. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Peer Reviewed

1

Open Access

1

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