Arsenic and diabetes may be linked

Chronic exposure to high levels of inorganic arsenic in drinking water - as might be found in portions of Taiwan, Bangladesh and Mexico - has been associated with type 2 diabetes in humans.

What has remained unclear, however, is whether low to moderate levels of arsenic also have an effect. Given the prevalence of diabetes in the United States - and of low levels of arsenic in some drinking water supplies, both public and private - a link could have implications for its prevention and control.

To find out, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore compared the prevalance of type 2 diabetes with levels of arsenic in the urine of 788 adults who had participated in the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Participants with type 2 diabetes had a 26 percent higher level of total arsenic in their urine, the researchers found. Adults with the highest levels were 3.6 times more likely to develop diabetes than those with the lowest levels.

Much remains unclear, and the authors called for additional research. "It is prudent to minimize arsenic exposure while its effect on metabolic diseases continues to be researched," concluded an editorial that accompanied the report in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.