地方性砷中毒地区环境砷暴露健康风险研究进展

自然因素引起的环境高砷暴露及其健康效应,尤其是饮水型地方性砷中毒是砷污染健康风险评估的基础。总结地方性砷中毒在环境砷暴露的风险识别、暴露途径和暴露与健康效应关系研究中的作用基础上,指出了地方性砷中毒研究中仅强调了饮水污染,关注的暴露途径比较单一,因此,人体多途径联合砷暴露的健康风险评估过程存在较大的不确定性。我国是唯一存在饮水和燃煤2种自然环境高砷暴露的国家,是研究2种类型砷暴露异同的天然场地,然而目前环境高砷的暴露及其健康效应的研究均为独立研究,对燃煤型地方性砷中毒在呼吸链砷暴露风险评估中的作用重视不够。因此,通过开展两种环境砷暴露及其健康效应的综合比较研究,建立呼吸链暴露评估和暴露-健康效应模型,可以为人体多途径联合砷暴露的健康风险研究提供新的依据。

Review on Health Risks of Environmental Arsenic Exposure in Endemic Arsenism Areas

The epidemiological data from the area of high level of arsenic exposure and its health effects, caused by the natural factors especially drinking water with high level of arsenic, are the foundation of health risk assessment of arsenic exposure. In this paper, it was reviewed that the endemic arsenism contributed to the studies on the health risk identification, different exposure pathways (ingestion and inhalation) and dose-effect relationship between arsenic exposure and its adverse health effects. In these previous investigations, researchers have paid more attention to the arsenic in drinking water with little consideration of other exposure pathways, inducing a higher degree of uncertainty in the health risk assessment arsenic exposure. In the world, only China has two types of arsenism which are induced by drinking arsenic contaminated water and by burning coal with high levels of arsenic. Accordingly, China is a natural field for assessing the differences between these two main environmental arsenic exposure pathways. However, the studies on arsenic exposure from ingestion and inhalation were independently carried out. Moreover, the studies on arsenic exposure from burning coal with high levels of arsenic were scarcely studied. In view of this, it is suggested that a comprehensive study on arsenic exposure and its adverse health results both in the two types of endemic arsenism areas will be conducted in order to build the dose-effect relationship between multi-pathway arsenic exposure and health effects,which could provide a basis for the investigation on the human health risks of united ways of arsenic exposure.