There’s an interesting study from Johns Hopkins to be published in the August 20, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that’s found that there may be a relationship between the onset of Type II Diabetes and arsenic:
“Our findings suggest that low levels of exposure to inorganic arsenic may play a role in diabetes,†said Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor with the Bloomberg School’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences. “While prospective studies are needed to establish whether this association is causal, these findings add to the existing concerns about the long-term health consequences of low and moderate exposure to inorganic arsenic.â€
Inorganic arsenic is found naturally in rocks and soils. In the U.S., most exposure to inorganic arsenic comes from contaminated drinking water. Foods such as flour and rice can also provide small quantities of inorganic arsenic, particularly if grown or cooked in areas with arsenic contamination in soil or water. Seafood is a source of organic arsenic compounds that have little or no toxicity.
The most likely culprit is arsenic from the drinking water, particularly an issue in Californian and the upper Midwest. There have been previous reports of a connection between arsenic and diabetes but to the best of my knowledge this is the first study to find a connection between low levels of arsenic, the kind that can commonly be found in drinking water, and diabetes. I wonder if there have been spikes in new cases of diabetes during droughts.
If this pans out perhaps it will encourage people to look for environmental causes for other health conditions rather than blaming it on low character.
