Cancer burden from arsenic in drinking water in Bangladesh.

We assessed the potential burden of internal cancers due to arsenic exposure in Bangladesh. We estimated excess lifetime risks of death from liver, bladder, and lung cancers using an exposure distribution, death probabilities, and cancer mortality rates from Bangladesh and dose-specific relative risk estimates from Taiwan. Results indicated at least a doubling of lifetime mortality risk from liver, bladder, and lung cancers (229.6 vs 103.5 per 100 000 population) in Bangladesh owing to arsenic in drinking water.