Assessing arsenic intake from groundwater and rice by residents in Prey Veng province, Cambodia.

We investigated total daily intake of As by residents in Prey Veng province in the Mekong River basin of Cambodia. Groundwater (n = 11), rice (n = 11) and fingernail (n = 23) samples were randomly collected from the households and analyzed for total As by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Calculation indicated that daily dose of inorganic As was greater than the lower limits on the benchmark dose for a 0.5% increased incidence of lung cancer (BMDL0.5 equals to 3.0 µg d(-1) kg(-1)body wt.). Moreover, positive correlation between As in fingernail and daily dose of As from groundwater and rice and total daily dose of As were found. These results suggest that the Prey Veng residents are exposed to As in groundwater. As in rice is an additional source which is attributable to high As accumulation in human bodies in the Mekong River basin of Cambodia.

Arsenic contamination in the food chain and its risk assessment of populations residing in the Mekong River basin of Cambodia.

In the present study, we investigated the potential arsenic exposure of Cambodian residents from their daily food consumption. Environmental and ecological samples such as paddy soils, paddy rice (unhusked), staple rice (uncooked and cooked), fish and vegetables were collected from Kandal, Kratie and Kampong Cham provinces in the Mekong River basin of Cambodia. After acid-digestion, digestates were chemically analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Results revealed that the means of total arsenic concentration ([As]tot) in paddy soils and paddy rice from Kandal were significantly higher than those from Kampong Cham province (t-test, p<0.05). Moreover, a significant positive correlation between the [As]tot in paddy soils and paddy rice was found (r(14) = 0.826, p<0.01). Calculations of arsenic intake from food consumption indicated that the upper end of the range of the daily dose of inorganic arsenic for Kandal residents (0.089-8.386 µg d(-1) kg(-1) body wt.) was greater than the lower limits on the benchmark dose for a 0.5% increased incidence of lung cancer (BMDL0.5 is equal to 3.0 µg d(-1) kg(-1) body wt.). The present study suggests that the residents in Kandal are at risk of arsenic intake from their daily food consumption. However, the residents in Kratie and Kampong Cham provinces are less likely to be exposed to arsenic through their daily dietary intake. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report estimating the daily intake and daily dose of inorganic arsenic from food consumption in the Mekong River basin of Cambodia.