Arsenic in Drinking Water Raises Diabetes Risk

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"In terms of magnitude, people in Taiwan and Bangladesh are exposed to at least 10 times higher levels compared to people in the U.S.," Navas-Acien said. "We were interested in investigating if arsenic exposure at low and moderate levels could be related to diabetes."

After analyzing 788 U.S. adults aged 20 or older, the study authors found that people with type 2 diabetes had a 26 percent higher level of total arsenic in their urine than participants without type 2 diabetes.

People with the highest levels of arsenic were almost 3.6 times more likely to have diabetes than people with the lowest levels, the researchers found.

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Those with the highest levels of dimethylarsinate (a compound into which inorganic arsenic is metabolized) had 1.5 times the risk of diabetes as those with the lowest levels. This was after adjusting for organic arsenic compounds such as arsenobetaine and arsenosugars, which come primarily from seafood.

"When we adjusted for diabetes risk factors and for markers of seafood intake, we found this moderate-to-strong relationship between arsenic and the prevalence of diabetes," Navas-Acien said.

In the United States, the main sources of inorganic arsenic are contaminated drinking water and food. An estimated 8 percent of public water supply systems in the United States may have arsenic levels higher than 10 micrograms per liter while 14 percent may have levels exceeding 2 micrograms per liter, the researchers said.

"There are still many Americans with arsenic in drinking water at levels above safety standards," said Navas-Acien. "This reinforces how important it is that all drinking water is below this standard. The good news is that we can actually do something to eliminate arsenic from water."

Small, rural and semi-rural communities may be at especially high risk for high arsenic levels in drinking water, Navas-Acien.

More information

For more on arsenic in the water supply, visit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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