In the present study, we assessed urine concentrations of As and its species in a representative sample of adolescents of the Walloon population in Belgium. We examined the associations of As and its species with habitual intakes of fish and rice and other possible determinants such as gender and determined exposure reference values.
We analysed urine concentrations of total arsenic (AsT), arsenobetaine (AB) and toxic relevant arsenic (TRA, the sum of DMA, MMA and inorganic arsenic) in a sample of 281 adolescents (aged 12-19y) for the BMH-WAL survey (2019-2020) using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The participants completed self-administered questionnaires on socio-demographic characteristics, diet, certain risk factors for chronic diseases, intake of food supplements, general environment, housing and life behaviours such as smoking.
All participants had detectable concentrations of AsT. The geometric mean urine concentrations for adolescents were 8.1 μg/L for AsT, 2.7 μg/L for AB, and 3.7 μg/L for TRA. Since fish or seafood are a major arsenic source, the most significant partitioning criteria for urine AsT is typically the recent consumption of fish/seafood. This was also the case for AB, the organic specie of As that is mostly present in fish and seafood. On the other hand, for TRA, not only the consumption of fish and seafood, but also the consumption of rice were relevant partitioning criteria. Gender seemed not to have a significant effect on the urine concentrations of As and its species for these adolescents.
For TRA, the most relevant biomarker for the adverse effects of arsenic, this translates into reference values of 13 μg/L for these teenagers and 9 and 10 μg/L for teenagers not having consumed fish and rice respectively. These results are in good agreement with other European and American populations and confirm that health risks cannot be ruled out as 21% of study participants exceed the current TRA health based guidance value of 6.4 μg/L.