Exposure to arsenic through breast milk from mothers exposed to high levels of arsenic in drinking water: Infant risk assessment

Heavy metal toxicity is related with a number of diseases, but the problem increases many-fold when toxic metals are found in breast milk, the basic food item in a vulnerable age group. Twenty milk samples from lactating women were collected from rural areas of arsenic-affected districts of Kaboodrahang city, Iran. Arsenic levels in drinking water were also analyzed. As controls, 20 breast milk samples and 8 drinking water samples were also collected from two villages southwest of Kaboodrahang city, where no groundwater arsenic contamination has been reported. Mean (+/- SD) arsenic concentration was 10.75 (+/- 7.62) mu g/L in study samples and 7.73 (+/- 4.01) mu g/L in control samples. Unacceptable non-carcinogenic health risk levels or hazard quotients for arsenic were found in 55% of breastfed infants in the contaminated areas and 41% of breastfed infants in the non-contaminated area. The results showed that the levels of arsenic in both contaminated and non-contaminated areas were high. This suggest that arsenic probably enters the mother's milk from other sources such as food crops in the study area. Our results indicate a potential risk of arsenic toxicity in infants in rural areas in Kaboodrahang city via the consumption of mothers' breast milk.