Chronic arsenic exposure affects 100 million people worldwide, including populations in Bangladesh. The arsenic levels in drinking water in some parts of Bangladesh reach as high as 100 times the World Health Organization and EPA guidelines, which set a limit of 10 micrograms per liter for arsenic in drinking water.
This toxic element, naturally present in some aquifers used for drinking, is currently a significant public health problem in at least 70 countries, including several developing countries and also parts of the United States. Chronic arsenic exposure is associated with increased risk for skin, liver and bladder cancers, skin lesions, cardiovascular disease and other adverse health outcomes. The study results are published in the October 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The researchers found that treatment with 400 micrograms a day of folic acid, the U.S. recommended dietary allowance, reduced total blood arsenic levels in the study population by 14 percent.
"Folic acid supplementation enhanced the detoxification of arsenic to a form that is more readily excreted in urine," said Mary Gamble, Ph.D.,
Folic acid increased the methylation or detoxification of arsenic in the body, allowing the body to change some of its more toxic metabolite, or methylarsonic (MMA) acid, to a form that could more easily be excreted from the body, thus lowering the levels of arsenic found in the blood.
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