Assessing cancer risks via seafood consumption based on arsenic metabolites in human urine

摘要

Recently, more and more studies focused on arsenic (As) exposure through seafood rather than drinking water because seafood contains high As concentrations (Hughes, 2006). Based on non-invasive characteristics and directly related to As excretion, urinary As concentration is generally regarded as the most important biomarker (Hughes, 2006). In practice, creatinine adjustment of urinary As concentrations has been proven to be a good predictor in different populations (Hata et al., 2007). Physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models have been extensively applied to construct the relationship between chemical concentration in the environment and in target tissues (Clewell et al., 2008). In human health risk assessment scheme, it is also important to establish the profile to illustrate dose-response relationship after exposure. The Weibull model was recommended by several studies as a precise means to describe cancer risk under long-term low-dose exposure (Liao et al., 2008). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a thorough methodology which can improve our ability to estimate lifetime cancer risk through seafood consumption.