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 "It’s an important disease to be concerned about," said senior
author Debra Silverman, of the National Cancer Institute in
Bethesda, Maryland. "If people are drinking from these wells, I
think it’s important for people to get their water tested."
Silverman and her colleagues wrote online May 2 in the Journal of
the National Cancer Institute that bladder cancer death rates have
been elevated in New England compared to the rest of the country for
the last five decades. Bladder cancer diagnoses were also found to
be about 20% higher in New England.
Thanks to the area's geography, private wells there tend to contain
low-to-moderate levels of arsenic from bedrock. Until the 1950s,
pesticides containing arsenic were used extensively in the region,
too.
"In studies coming from Chile, Taiwan and Argentina where people
were drinking water with high levels of arsenic, they had increased
levels of bladder cancer mortality," Silverman told Reuters Health.
More recent research, including some from New Hampshire, found that
even low levels of arsenic exposure may increase bladder cancer
risk.
About 77,000 new cases of bladder cancer will be diagnosed in the
U.S. during 2016, experts expect, and about 16,400 people will die
of it.
For the new study, the researchers compared 1,213 people who were
diagnosed with bladder cancer between 2001 and 2004 in Maine,
Vermont and New Hampshire to 1,418 people without cancer.
In addition to looking at other risk factors for bladder cancer, the
researchers estimated how much water participants had consumed on a
daily basis over the course of their lives, and the water's arsenic
content.
The current arsenic limit for safe drinking water is below 10 ug/L.
Arsenic levels in these New England states are thought to be below
100 ug/L.
Overall, the researchers found that bladder cancer risk increased
with how much water people drank.
Among those with private wells, people who drank the most water were
nearly twice as likely to have bladder cancer as those who drank the
least.
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The strongest association was for so-called dug wells that are less
than 50 feet deep, particularly when those shallow wells were in use
since the days when arsenic-containing pesticides were common.
While the new study can't prove arsenic in the well water caused the
increase in bladder cancer diagnoses and deaths in New England,
Silverman believes it's the likely culprit.
People should be aware that arsenic does affect private drinking
water supplies in New England, and everyone should test for that,
said Joseph Ayotte, one of Silverman's coauthors and a hydrologist
at the U.S. Geological Survey in Pembroke, New Hampshire.
He said people in New Hampshire can see arsenic concentrations in
special maps (PDF): http://on.doi.gov/1T284hX.
"Those show clearly where the problem is the biggest and can be used
as a guide for people to understand the potential risk for having
arsenic in their wells," said Ayotte. "But the recommendation is
that everybody tests."
People can ask the state or private companies to analyze their well
water for a fee. Then, he said, different types of water filters are
available to lower arsenic levels.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1T28QeM
J Natl Cancer Inst 2016.
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