CGPH FACULTY: Allan H. Smith
DATE OF PUBLICATION: January 2010
REGION: Latin America
REFERENCE: Yuan Y, Marshall G, Ferreccio C, Steinmaus C, Liaw J, Bates M, Smith AH. Kidney cancer mortality: fifty-year latency patterns related to arsenic exposure. Epidemiology. 2010 Jan;21(1):103-8. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e3181c21e46.
SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: Arsenic in drinking water is associated with kidney cancer. Beginning in 1958, a region of Chile experienced a rapid onset of high arsenic exposure in drinking water, followed by sharp declines when water treatment plants were installed in 1971. For the years 1950-1970, we obtained mortality data from death certificates for an exposed region and an unexposed region in Chile. We obtained computerized mortality data for all of Chile for 1971-2000. This study shows a latency pattern of increased mortality from kidney cancer, continuing for at least 25 years after the high exposures began to decline. Early life exposure resulted in markedly higher kidney cancer mortality in young adults.
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