Health Impact of Global Atmospheric Arsenic: 2005-2015

Abstract:

Elemental arsenic and many of its compounds are highly toxic pollutants in the environment. Arsenic ingestion or inhalation can lead to diseases including cardiovascular disease, skin cancer, respiratory cancer and other diseases. Previous studies on arsenic pollution have primarily focused on groundwater arsenic, leaving the influence of atmospheric arsenic largely ignored. In this study, we examine the impact on human health from atmospheric arsenic on the global scale. We first develop an improved global atmospheric arsenic emission inventory and connect it to a global model (GEOS-Chem). Model evaluation using observational data from a variety of sources shows the model successfully reproduces the spatial distribution of atmospheric arsenic around the world. We find that the distribution of arsenic globally shows large spatial heterogeneity (with high concentrations over Chile, eastern China and India) and India shows strikingly increase of 65% for the atmospheric arsenic concentration in 2015 compared to 2005. Based on potential exceedance of health-based limits, we find that the combined effect by including both atmospheric and groundwater arsenic may significantly enhance the risks, due to carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effect. Therefore, this study clearly implies the necessity in accounting for both atmospheric and groundwater arsenic in future management.