Arsenic Report Says EPA
Underestimates Risk
Excerpt by Keith Mulvihill, Reuters Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new report from the National Academy of Science (NAS) says that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has underestimated the risk of bladder and lung cancer posed by arsenic in drinking water.

``Our analysis suggests that the risks for bladder and lung cancer incidence are greater than the risk estimates on which the EPA based its recommendations in their January 2001 pending rule,'' said Dr. Michael J. Kosnett of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver in an interview with Reuters Health.

Kosnett is a member of the NAS subcommittee that conducted the analysis of new data reported in studies that evaluted cancer risks associated drinking water that contained arsenic in Taiwan and Chile.

``Together the two studies provide a consistent picture and point to the same magnitude of risk,'' said Kosnett. ``The new information provides confidence that the risk estimates are valid.''

At a concentration of 3 microgram per liter, the report indicates that the theoretical lifetime risk estimates for bladder and lung cancer combine are between approximately 4 and 10 people per 10,000 people when risks are estimated using Taiwan or US background rates of these cancers respectively.

Earlier this year, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a ruling that called for maximum allowable arsenic levels to be lowered from 50 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb in an effort to cut the health risks associated with the contaminant. That ruling, was suspended by the Bush administration, along with a number of other rules issued late in the Clinton administration, saying it needed more review.

Critics have maintained that the new standard imposed unreasonable burdens on many water districts, particularly small rural ones in the west where naturally occurring levels of arsenic from the volcanic soil may exceed the new standard.

Some 13 million people in the United States routinely drink water with more than 10 parts per billion of arsenic, according to EPA figures.

Environmental groups have sued the EPA, accusing it of unlawfully reversing the Clinton administration rule and ignoring a June 22 deadline set by Congress for new standards.

Arsenic is found naturally in rocks, soil, water and air. Industrial, agricultural or mining operations can also cause arsenic contamination in the surrounding environment. Scientists say that most water sources in the United States contain less than 5 ppb of arsenic, but ``there may be hot spots with...higher than the predicted occurrence,'' the EPA cautions.

``More water systems in the western states that depend on underground sources of drinking water have naturally occurring levels of arsenic at levels greater than 10 ppb than in other parts of the US. Parts of the Midwest and New England have systems whose current arsenic levels range from 2 to 10 ppb,'' according to the EPA.

Reference Source 89

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