Inorganic arsenic may increase diabetes risk

0 Comments | USA TODAY, August, 2008 | by Mary Brophy Marcus

A new study adds to arsenic's notoriety as a cause of cancer and favored murder mystery poison by suggesting it also plays a role in diabetes.

Exposure to low levels of inorganic arsenic -- an industrial pollutant that also is found naturally in rocks and soil -- in drinking water may increase a person's risk of type 2 diabetes, researchers report in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

For years, it has been known that arsenic is linked to cancer.

At high levels of exposure, it also is connected to cardiovascular health and diabetes, but that evidence comes from regions where arsenic levels in drinking water and the environment are high, says study author Ana Navas-Acien, an assistant professor of environmental health science at...