Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Article
  • Published:

Arsenic levels in the groundwater of Korea and the urinary excretion among contaminated area

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 26, pages 458–463 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Drinking water is a main source of human exposure to arsenic. Hence, the determination of arsenic in groundwater is essential to assess its impact on public health. Here, we report arsenic levels in the groundwater of 722 sites covering all six major provinces of Korea. Water was sampled in two occasions (summer, 722 sites and winter, 636 sites) and the arsenic levels were measured with highly sensitive inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry method (limit of detection, 0.1 μg/l) to encompass the current drinking water standard (<10 μg/l). Seasonal variation was negligible, but the geographical difference was prominent. Total arsenic in groundwater ranged from 0.1 to 48.4 μg/l. A 88.0–89.0% of sites were <2.0 μg/l and the remaining ones generally did not exceed 10 μg/l (6.4–7.0%, 2.0–4.9 μg/l; 2.4–3.0%, 5.0–9.9 μg/l). However, some areas (1.0–9.2%) exhibited >10 μg/l. Notably, urinary arsenic excretion of people around these regions was markedly higher compared with non-contaminated areas (<5 μg/l) (79.7±5.2 μg/g (N=122) vs 68.4±5.4 μg/g (N=65) creatinine, P=0.052). All stratified analysis also revealed higher urinary excretion, where a statistically significant difference was noted for non-smokers (85.9±12.7 vs 54.0±6.3, P=0.030), suggesting that arsenic-contaminated groundwater may contribute to its systemic exposure.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Halder D, Bhowmick S, Biswas A, Chatterjee D, Nriagu J, Guha Mazumder DN et al. Risk of arsenic exposure from drinking water and dietary components: implications for risk management in rural Bengal. Environ Sci Technol 2013; 47: 1120–1127.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. WHOArsenic and Arsenic Compounds, 2nd edn. Environmental Health Criteria 224. World Health Organization: Geneva, Switzerland, 2001.

  3. Hughes MF, Beck BD, Chen Y, Lewis AS, Thomas DJ . Arsenic exposure and toxicology: a historical perspective. Toxicol Sci 2011; 123: 305–332.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Le XC, Cullen WR, Reimer KJ . Determination of urinary arsenic and impact of dietary arsenic intake. Talanta 1993; 40: 185–193.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Berg M, Tran HC, Nguyen TC, Pham HV, Schertenleib R, Giger W . Arsenic contamination of groundwater and drinking water in Vietnam: a human health threat. Environ Sci Technol 2001; 35: 2621–2626.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Guha Mazumder DN . Chronic arsenic toxicity: clinical features, epidemiology, and treatment: experience in West Bengal. J Environ Sci Health A 2003; 38: 141–163.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Nordstrom DK . Public health. Worldwide occurrences of arsenic in groundwater. Science 2002; 296: 2143–2145.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Smith AH, Lingas EO, Rahman M . Contamination of drinking-water by arsenic in Bangladesh: a public health emergency. Bull World Health Organ 2000; 78: 1093–1103.

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Naujokas MF, Anderson B, Ahsan H, Aposhian HV, Graziano JH, Thompson C et al. The broad scope of health effects from chronic arsenic exposure: update on a worldwide public health problem. Environ Health Perspect 2013; 121: 295–302.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Wu M-M, Kuo T-L, Hwang Y-H, Chen C-J . Dose–response relation between arsenic concentration in well water and mortality from cancers and vascular diseases. Am J Epidemiol 1989; 130: 1123–1132.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Yoshida T, Yamauchi H, Fan Sun G . Chronic health effects in people exposed to arsenic via the drinking water: dose–response relationships in review. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 2004; 198: 243–252.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. ASTDR. The Priority List of Hazardous Substance. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service: Atlanta, GA, USA. 2013.

  13. EPA Implementation Guidance for the Arsenic Rule: Drinking Water Regulations for Arsenic and Clarification to Compliance and New Source Contaminants Monitoring. United States Environmental Protection Agency: Washington DC, USA. 2002.

  14. Mandal BK, Suzuki KT . Arsenic round the world: a review. Talanta 2002; 58: 201–235.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Rodríguez-Lado L, Sun G, Berg M, Zhang Q, Xue H, Zheng Q et al. Groundwater arsenic contamination throughout China. Science 2013; 341: 866–868.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Taussky HH . A microcolorimetric determination of creatine in urine by the Jaffe reaction. J Biol Chem 1954; 208: 853–862.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Lee Y, Nelder JA, Pawitan Y . Generalized Linear Models with Random Effects: Unified Analysis via H-likelihood. CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, USA. 2006.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  18. McArthur J, Ravenscroft P, Safiulla S, Thirlwall M . Arsenic in groundwater: testing pollution mechanisms for sedimentary aquifers in Bangladesh. Water Resour Res 2001; 37: 109–117.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Smedley P, Kinniburgh D . A review of the source, behaviour and distribution of arsenic in natural waters. Appl Geochem 2002; 17: 517–568.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Ahn J-S, Ko K-S, Chon C-M. Arsenic Occurrence in Groundwater of Korea. J Soil Groundw Environ 2007; 12: 64–72.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Nicolli HB, Bundschuh J, Blanco Mdel C, Tujchneider OC, Panarello HO, Dapena C et al. Arsenic and associated trace-elements in groundwater from the Chaco-Pampean plain, Argentina: results from 100 years of research. Sci Total Environ 2012; 429: 36–56.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Guha Mazumder DN, Haque R, Ghosh N, De BK, Santra A, Chakraborty D et al. Arsenic levels in drinking water and the prevalence of skin lesions in West Bengal, India. Int J Epidemiol 1998; 27: 871–877.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Tondel M, Rahman M, Magnuson A, Chowdhury IA, Faruquee MH, Ahmad SA . The relationship of arsenic levels in drinking water and the prevalence rate of skin lesions in Bangladesh. Environ Health Perspect 1999; 107: 727–729.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Tseng WP, Chu HM, How SW, Fong JM, Lin CS, Yeh S . Prevalence of skin cancer in an endemic area of chronic arsenicism in Taiwan. J Natl Cancer Inst 1968; 40: 453–463.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Armienta M, Segovia N . Arsenic and fluoride in the groundwater of Mexico. Environ Geochem Health 2008; 30: 345–353.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. EPA Arsenic Occurrence in Public Drinking Water Supplies. United States Environmental Protection Agency: Washington DC, USA, 2000.

  27. Martinez VD, Vucic EA, Lam S, Lam WL . Emerging arsenic threat in Canada. Science 2013; 342: 559.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Caruso RV, O'Connor RJ, Stephens WE, Cummings KM, Fong GT . Toxic metal concentrations in cigarettes obtained from U.S. smokers in 2009: results from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) United States survey cohort. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2014; 11: 202–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Navas-Acien A, Umans JG, Howard BV, Goessler W, Francesconi KA, Crainiceanu CM et al. Urine arsenic concentrations and species excretion patterns in American Indian communities over a 10-year period: the Strong Heart Study. Environ Health Perspect 2009; 117: 1428–1433.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Carbonell-Barrachina AA, Wu X, Ramirez-Gandolfo A, Norton GJ, Burlo F, Deacon C et al. Inorganic arsenic contents in rice-based infant foods from Spain, UK, China and USA. Environ Pollut 2012; 163: 77–83.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Wei Y, Zhu J, Nguyen A . Rice consumption and urinary concentrations of arsenic in US adults. Int J Environ Health Res 2014; 24: 459–470.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Wong WW, Chung SW, Chan BT, Ho YY, Xiao Y . Dietary exposure to inorganic arsenic of the Hong Kong population: results of the first Hong Kong total diet study. Food Chem Toxicol 2013; 51: 379–385.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Leffers L, Ebert F, Taleshi MS, Francesconi KA, Schwerdtle T . In vitro toxicological characterization of two arsenosugars and their metabolites. Mol Nutr Food Res 2013; 57: 1270–1282.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea

    Jung-Duck Park, Seong-Jin Choi & Byung-Sun Choi

  2. Inhalation Toxicology Center, Korea Institute of Toxicology, Daejeon, South Korea

    Seong-Jin Choi

  3. Ulsan University Hospital, Ulsan, South Korea

    Choong-Ryeol Lee

  4. College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, South Korea

    Heon Kim & Yong-Dae Kim

  5. Advanced Analysis Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, South Korea

    Kyung-Soo Park

  6. College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    Young-Jo Lee

  7. College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    Seojin Kang & Jin-Ho Chung

  8. College of Pharmacy, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea

    Kyung-Min Lim

Authors
  1. Jung-Duck Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Seong-Jin Choi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Byung-Sun Choi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Choong-Ryeol Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Heon Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Yong-Dae Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Kyung-Soo Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Young-Jo Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Seojin Kang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Kyung-Min Lim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Jin-Ho Chung
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kyung-Min Lim or Jin-Ho Chung.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Park, JD., Choi, SJ., Choi, BS. et al. Arsenic levels in the groundwater of Korea and the urinary excretion among contaminated area. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 26, 458–463 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2016.16

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2016.16

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links