Arsenic As A Human Carcinogen

The alchemists' symbol for arsenic is a coiled serpent (Levander et al., 1977, p. 1). The chemical is famous for its poisonous attributes. Less wellknown, however, is the fact that arsenic has also been used as a therapeutic "tonic." For hundreds of years, patients received arsenic for conditions ranging from acute infections to epilepsy, and asthma (Bickley & Papa, 1989, p. 378). Furthermore, both inorganic and organic arsenic preparations are still in limited use today (Levander et al., 1977, p. 174). Regardless though, whether arsenic exposure has been by accident or on purpose, its ingestion has been implicated in the development of several forms of cancer (Bickley & Papa, 1989, p. 377).

The chemistry of arsenic is complex (Malachowski, 1990, p. 463). In the natural environment, it is rarely encountered as a free element. In one form or another, arsenic is present in most rocks, soils, water, and living organisms (Malachowski, 1990, p. 462). It ranks twentieth among the elements in abundance in the earth's crust (Fowler, 1983, p. 53). It also serves as a major c

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5). Several authors have cited similar associations in exposed workers as evidence that arsenic exposure causes cancer (Jarup et al., 1989, p. 31). Of the published reports on mortality from respiratory cancer in copper smelters, the most impressive is that of Lee and Fraumeni (Levander et al., 1977, p. 208). The researchers compared the mortality experience of 8,047 white male smelter workers exposed to arsenic trioxide during 193863 (Levander et al., 1977, p. 198199). They found a threefold excess total mortality from respiratory cancer which reached an eightfold excess for heavily exposed smelter workers who had worked longer than 15 years (Levander et al., 1977, p. 199). In addition, the latent periodthe interval between first employment and death from respiratory cancerwas extraordinarily long (three to four decades), but was inversely related to the magnitude of exposure (Levander et al., 1977, p. 209). Numerous other examples of arsenicinduced occupational cancer exist. For instance, the excess lungcancer mortality among Southern Rhodesian miners of goldbearing ores is thought to be due to arsenic (Levander et al., 1977, p. 197). Also, the occurrence of lung and liver cancer among German vineyard wor
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