Dose response relationship for bladder and lung cancer mortality in low-dose villages (<150 μg/L) in the blackfoot disease endemic area of southwest Taiwan—Implications in risk analysis

摘要

Numerous analyses of internal cancer deaths in the Southwest Taiwan Blackfoot Disease endemic area have demonstrated the carcinogenic effect of As in drinking water in high concentrations (>～300-500 μg/L) [e.g., Morales et al., 2000; Lamm et al., 2003, 2005], some with a threshold-like effect at about 150 ug/L [Lamm et al., 2006, 2007]. The variation in exposure data has hindered the analysis at low levels. We have attempted that. Publically available data on the 42 villages from the Wu et al. (1989) study contain cancer death counts and person-years by age, gender, and well As levels (ug/L). Age-adjusted Poisson regression analysis was conducted for the 15 villages with mean well As level <150 ug/L for lung cancer, bladder cancer and bladder and lung cancer combined. Analyses were conducted for males, females, and males and females combined.