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Arsenic in Drinking Water Tied to Kidney Cancer Risk

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Dec 19, 2024.

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Dec. 19, 2024 -- Even low levels of arsenic exposure in drinking water may increase the risk for kidney cancer, according to a study published online Dec. 15 in Environmental Pollution.

Nishat Tasnim Hasan, Dr.P.H., from Texas A&M University in College Station, and colleagues assessed the association between county-level drinking water arsenic levels and kidney cancer incidences using data from 240 counties in Texas. The analysis included 28,896 cancer cases among adults aged 20 years and older and 101,776,294 person-years from 2016 to 2020.

The researchers found that when adjusting for spatial factors and covariates (e.g., demographic and socioeconomic factors and cancer risk factors such as obesity, smoking, and diabetes), there was a 6 and 22 percent higher incidence of cancer in the medium (1 to 5 ppb; relative risk, 1.06) and high arsenic (>5 ppb) group counties (relative risk, 1.22) versus low arsenic-level counties (<1 ppb), showing a dose-response relationship. When arsenic was treated as a continuous variable, the incidence increased by 4 percent for each doubling of drinking water arsenic level (relative risk, 1.04).

"This suggests that even low-level arsenic exposure in drinking water may be associated with an increased risk of kidney cancer, which aligns with previous research indicating an association between this exposure and lung, bladder, and skin cancers," coauthor Taehyun Roh, Ph.D., also from Texas A&M University, said in a statement.

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Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

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Posted December 2024

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