Arsenic in drinking water raises kidney cancer risk, even at low levels
Millions of Americans are regularly exposed to arsenic through their drinking water, which may be increasing their risks for kidney cancer, a new study in Environmental Pollution finds.
Researchers from Texas A&M University’s School of Public Health compared samples from public water systems and private wells in 240 Texas counties with kidney cancer rates. While federal regulations specify that drinking water contain no more than 10 parts per billion of arsenic, the study found health harms can occur at much lower levels.
Exposure to 1 to 5 parts per billion of arsenic in drinking water increased kidney cancer risk by 6%, while exposure higher than 5 parts per billion raised the risk by 22%. Overall, cancer risks increased 4% each time water arsenic levels doubled.
Despite declines in smoking — a recognized risk factor for kidney cancer — rates of the disease rose about 1.2% each year in the U.S. between 2011 and 2019, making it the nation’s seventh most common type of cancer.
Arsenic naturally occurs in groundwater in many parts of the U.S., including Texas, entering water supplies as rocks, minerals and soil erode. Arsenic contamination also can come from manufactured sources, such as pesticides, wood preservatives and glass. More than 2 million Americans are estimated to be exposed to arsenic through their drinking water.
Previous research has linked arsenic exposure to cardiovascular disease, pregnancy risks and lung, bladder and skin cancers, among other harms. About 7,650 new cases of kidney and renal pelvis cancers are expected to be diagnosed in Texas in 2024, with more than 1,300 residents dying of the disease, according to Texas Oncology.
Air pollution linked to deep-vein blood clots
People who are exposed to long-term air pollution are at higher risk for developing dangerous blood clots, a new study finds.
Published in Blood, the study looked at nearly 17 years of data on thousands of people living in six major U.S. metropolitan areas. People who were exposed to air pollutants over many years were as much as 174% more likely to develop deep-vein blood clots that required hospital care than people without long-term exposure.
Researchers looked at three major kinds of air pollutants: fine-particle pollution, nitrogen oxides and nitrogen dioxide, also known as PM2.5, NOx and NO2. The pollutants come from sources such as power plants, wildfires and vehicle exhaust.
Greater long-term exposure to PM2.5 raised risks of deep-vein clots by 39%, while NOx and NO2 raised risks by 121% and 174%, respectively.
Air pollution is known to contribute to inflammation and blood clotting as well as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
Deep-vein blood clots include deep-vein thrombosis, which occurs in arms, legs, arms or an internal organ, and pulmonary embolism, which occurs when a deep-vein blood clot reaches the lungs. About 900,000 people in the U.S. experience deep-vein clots annually.
Trailing US health expected to worsen
The U.S. has fallen behind many of its high-income peers on life expectancy, and unless the nation’s health improves dramatically, that gap will widen even further, a new analysis predicts.
High rates of obesity, drug use and high blood pressure are among the issues keeping the U.S. from catching up with other high-income nations, according to the research, which was published Dec. 7 in The Lancet.
In 2022, average life expectancy in the U.S. was 78.3 years, placing the nation in 49th place among more than 200 countries worldwide. Thanks to declines in deaths from diabetes, heart disease and strokes, U.S. life expectancy is expected to increase to about 80.4 by 2050.
While an improvement, that increase will not be rapid enough to move the U.S. up in the global rankings. In fact, because of progress in other nations, the U.S. will drop to 66th place globally for life expectancy that year, predicts the new research, which was led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Some nations are so far ahead of the U.S. that the only way America would catch up is if progress stalled beyond its borders, the study said.
More effectively addressing health disparities, increasing preventive care services and providing universal health coverage to all could significantly improve U.S. life expectancy, the researchers recommended.
Other recent public health news of note includes:
• Lower-quality public housing buildings in the U.S. are more likely to be located in areas with high flood risk, according to new findings from researchers at Ohio State and Texas A&M universities.
• A new final rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration specifically requires that personal protective equipment properly fit any construction worker who needs it, bringing requirements in line with other industries.
• Three cities in western Oregon — Medford, Grants Pass and Bend — experienced the nation’s highest level of wildfire smoke over five years, research presented at the American Geophysical Union’s Annual Meeting finds. About 60% of asthma-related visits in Bend in 2023 were related to wildfire smoke.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized three new rules designed to protect workers from hazardous exposure to chemicals. On Dec. 11, the agency announced new protections for carbon tetrachloride, or CTC, a solvent used to create refrigerants and aerosol propellants, and on Dec. 9, it finalized rules banning or restricting use of trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, also known as TCE and PCE.
The CTC measure was the fifth risk management rule to be completed under the 2016 Toxic Substances Control Act amendments, which expanded EPA’s authority to review and evaluate chemicals already in use.
• Exposure to glyphosate, an herbicide commonly used to control weeds in corn and soybean crops, can contribute to brain inflammation, a new animal study in the Journal of Neuroinflammation finds.
• Nearly 78% of the Earth’s land became permanently drier over the past three decades, according to a new report from the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification. If global greenhouse gas emissions are not curtailed, another 3% of the world’s humid areas will become drylands by the end of the century, affecting 5 billion people, the report predicts.
• The EPA Air Quality System collects data from thousands of monitors, providing valuable data on air pollution. But that data may not adequately capture exposures for some racial and ethnic groups, says a new study in JAMA Network Open.
The Watch is written by Michele Late, who has more than two decades of experience as a public health journalist.
