Integrated Quantitative Cancer Risk Assessment of Inorganic Arsenic

摘要

The paper attempts to make an integrated risk assessment of arsenic, using data on humans exposed to arsenic via inhalation and ingestion. The data useful for making an integrated analysis and data gaps are discussed. Arsenic provides a rare opportunity to compare the cancer risk to humans due to exposure to a metal carcinogen via inhalation and ingestion. The study's assessment suggests that the elevated lung cancer mortality observed in the population of the blackfoot disease endemic areas is consistent with that observed in copper smelter workers who, presumably, were exposed to arsenic via inhalation. It is also speculated, on the basis of overall information on arsenic, that smelter workers could have an elevated cancer mortality in sites other than the lung, contrary to the usual assumption that lung tissue is the only target tissue for cancer when exposure is via inhalation.