Relationship between hair selenium and arsenism induced by arsenic derived from coal combustion / 中华地方病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the relationship between hair selenium content and arsenism among population from endemic arsenism area caused by coal combustion in the southern of Shaanxi Province.Methods Four high-arsenic-exposed villages in southern Shaanxi Province were selected as the study area,and the nonarsenic-exposed villages nearby were selected as the control area,90 hair samples of residents exposed to high arsenic in the study area and 14 hair samples of residents in the control area were collected.Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the contents of arsenic and selenium in hair samples.Selenium/hair arsenic (Se/As) value was calculated,and the relationship between selenium content in hair samples and arsenicosis was analyzed.Results The geometric mean of selenium concentration in hair from the study area was 8.72 mg/kg,which was significandy higher than that from the control area (0.54 mg/kg,t =9.811,P ＜ 0.05).However,selenosis case was not found in the study area.Selenium content in hair was not obviously correlated with arsenism (r =0.075,P ＞ 0.05),while the Se/As value was negatively associated with the grade of arsenism (P ＞ 0.05).The geometric mean of selenium content in hair of female from the study area was 12.79 mg/kg,which was higher than that in hair of male (6.5 mg/kg,t =1.738,P ＜ 0.01).Meanwhile,the Se/As value in hair of female from the study area (1.15) was significantly higher than that in hair of male (0.65,t =3.218,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions The environment of the study area is polluted by arsenic and selenium derived from stone-coal burning.Antagonism between arsenic and selenium might reduce the toxicity of selenium.Therefore,selenosis is not found in the study area.In addition,antagonism between arsenic and selenium might also induce lower prevalence of arsenism for female in the studly area.