Seasonal perspective of dietary arsenic consumption and urine arsenic in an endemic population.

Exposure to arsenic in arsenic endemic areas is most remarkable environmental health challenges. Although effects of arsenic contamination are well established, reports are unavailable on probable seasonal variation due to changes of food habit depending on winter and summer seasons, especially for endemic regions of Nadia district, West Bengal. Complete 24-h diets, drinking-cooking water, first morning voided urine samples, and diet history were analyzed on 25 volunteers in arsenic endemic Chakdah block of Nadia district, once in summer followed by once in winter from the same participants. Results depicted no seasonal variation of body weight and body mass index. Arsenic concentration of source drinking and cooking water decreased (p = 0.04) from 26 μg L(-1) in summer to 6 μg L(-1) in winter season. We recorded a seasonal decrease of water intake in male (3.8 and 2.5 L day (-1)) and female (2.6 and 1.2 L day(-1)) participants from summer to winter. Arsenic intake through drinking water decreased (p = 0.04) in winter (29 μg day(-1)) than in summer (100 μg day(-1)), and urinary arsenic concentration decreased (p = 0.018) in winter (41 μg L(-1)) than in summer (69 μg L(-1)). Dietary arsenic intake remained unchanged (p = 0.24) over the seasons. Hence, we can infer that human health risk assessment from arsenic needs an insight over temporal scale.