A biological indicator of inorganic arsenic exposure using the sum of urinary inorganic arsenic and monomethylarsonic acid concentrations.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The sum of urinary inorganic arsenic (iAs), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA), and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) concentrations is used for the biological monitoring of occupational iAs exposure. Although DMA is a major metabolite of iAs, it is an inadequate index because high DMA levels are present in urine after seafood consumption. We estimated the urinary iAs+MMA concentration corresponding to iAs exposure. METHODS: We used data from two arsenic speciation analyses of urine samples from 330 Bangladeshi with oral iAs exposure and 172 Japanese workers without occupational iAs exposure using high-performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. RESULTS: iAs, MMA, and DMA, but not arsenobetaine (AsBe), were detected in the urine of the Bangladeshi subjects. The correlation between iAs+MMA+DMA and iAs+MMA was obtained as log (iAs+MMA) = 1.038 log (iAs+MMA+DMA) -0.658. Using the regression formula, the iAs+MMA value was calculated as 2.15 and 7.5 µg As/l, corresponding to 3 and 10 µg As/m(3) of exposures, respectively. In the urine of the Japanese workers, arsenic was mostly excreted as AsBe. We used the 95th percentile of iAs+MMA (12.6 µg As/l) as the background value. The sum of the calculated and background values can be used as a biological indicator of iAs exposure. CONCLUSION: We propose 14.8 and 20.1 µg As/l of urinary iAs+MMA as the biological indicators of 3 and 10 µg As/m(3) iAs exposure, respectively.