Low level arsenic exposure in water linked to diabetes

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Even low-level exposure to arsenic in drinking water appears to be associated with increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes, researchers said in a study published Tuesday.

Millions of people across the world consume drinking water containing arsenic from inorganic sources, said the researchers in the August 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

In the United States, 13 million people drink tap water containing more than the US Environmental Protection Agency standard of 10 micrograms per liter of inorganic arsenic, the study said.

Earlier research established a link between exposure to high levels of inorganic arsenic in the public water supply or in the workplace and type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes, but little was known about the effects of low-level exposure, it said.

Ana Navas-Acien, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues studied 788 ...