Arsenic and Lead in drinking water – flawed advice on testing

TOXIC HEAVY METALS TASKFORCE TASMANIA (THMTT)
Media Release
Friday 3rd September 2010

Residents notified of alarming levels of arsenic and lead in drinking water at Royal George, but poor advice given to doctors on how to test for exposure

At a meeting in Royal George (an ex-tin mining town in north-east Tasmania), on the 29th of August, Dr Chrissie Pickin, Deputy Director of Tasmania’s Department of Health and Human Services, advised local residents that levels of Arsenic in the drinking water taken from the St Pauls River were two hundred (200) times higher than the guidelines (drinking water), and for Lead, the levels were fifty (50) times higher than the guidelines. The known association between increased risk of cancer to exposure of high levels of metals makes the implications of this data extremely serious.

It is therefore disturbing that Dr Pickin has given poor advice on testing methodologies to doctors likely to treat patients from Royal George says Toxic Heavy Metals Taskforce (THMT) spokesperson, Kay Seltitzas. Additionally, says Ms Seltitzas, no mention was made of the need for testing for other heavy metals commonly associated with tin mining in Tasmania.

In a recent letter sent to doctors in Campbelltown, St Marys, Bicheno and St Helens,
advising about testing procedures for residents with health concerns from Royal George, Dr Pickin stated:

“Measuring arsenic in hair and nails is not useful, as interpretation will be confounded by external contamination i.e.; if they showered in the contaminated water”.

http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/peh/current_public_health_issues/royal_george

Ms Seltitzas says that “Based on considerable evidence from both Australian and international research, Dr Pickin’s comments would appear to be encouraging doctors to not provide the best diagnostic tools for assessment of arsenic exposure for Royal George residents who have been exposed to arsenic and other metals in drinking water and from other sources.”

“Arsenic levels in urine can only generally be detected for up to 3-5 days after acute exposure. Blood arsenic levels are only elevated for between one and two days. After approximately 30 days, Lead will reduce by approximately 50% in blood if all sources of exposure have been removed. As blood and urine testing was not undertaken prior to provision of clean treated tank water to Royal George residents, routine follow-up testing will be required to ascertain any decrease in any blood metal levels over time.”

Ms Seltitzas says that testing for heavy metal poisoning is a very complex issue and expert advice is required.

“Toenail and hair testing for arsenic and other metals is being conducted by many researchers throughout the world and is the most reliable methodology to assess for chronic exposure over time.”

“The Royal George contamination issues are beginning to look like another failure by the Department of Health to conduct proper and thorough health investigations for a community exposed to serious levels of toxic heavy metals, such as arsenic, lead, cadmium – and perhaps uranium, especially in drinking water.”

“The Taskforce calls on the Director of Public Health, Dr Roscoe Taylor, to immediately review all measures currently planned by the Public and Environmental Health Service to assess the health status of residents exposed to heavy metals in Royal George, and of people using water from the St Pauls and affected sections of the South Esk Rivers.” ###

References

Dr. Mohammad Mahmudur Rahman, Research Fellow, Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation (CERAR) University of South Australia.
Dr Michael James Watts, British Geological Survey, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom.
ABC Television Catalyst on 11 March 2010 on Arsenic Toenails –
Transcript Extracts from Dora Pearce University of Ballarat
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2843289.htm
US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts2.html#bookmark09
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/lead/pbbiologic_fate2.html

AUSTRALIAN AND INTERNATIONAL REFERENCES ON ARSENIC TOENAIL AND HAIR TESTING

Elizabeth O’Brien, President of The LEAD Group Inc., recently asked 6 questions about methodologies for testing of toenails and hair for arsenic. Questions and Answers are provided below:

From Dr. Mohammad Mahmudur Rahman, Research Fellow Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation (CERAR)
University of South Australia

Q. 1. what methodologies are best for testing arsenic in nails or hair (if any)?
Reply: A number of methodologies can be used for the determination of total arsenic concentration in biological samples such as hair and nail. These are:
1. Hot plate digestion followed by the flow injection hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry (FI-HG-AAS) (Smanta et al. 1999)/ ICP-MS analysis,
2. Teflon bomb digestion followed by FI-HG-AAS/ICP-MS measurement (Smanta et al. 1999),
3. Microwave assisted digestion followed by ICP-MS analysis (Uchino et al. 2006).
Reference
Samanta G, Roychowdhury T, Mandal BK et al (1999). Flow injection hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry for determination of arsenic in water and biological samples from arsenic-affected districts of West Bengal, India and Bangladesh. Microchem J 62:174-191.
Uchino, T., Roychowdhury, T., Ando, M and Tokunaga, H. (2006). Intake of arsenic from water, food composites and excretion through urine, hair from a studied population in West Bengal, India. Food and Chemical Toxicology 44, 455–461.
Q. 2. are there any special storage requirements for, for instance, nail clippings collected a year ago? Would it be worth test
Kay Seltitzas, THMTT Elizabeth O’Brien, President of The LEAD Group Inc