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Marni Hall,¹ Mary Gamble,¹ Vesna Slavkovich,¹ Xinhua Liu,² Diane Levy,² Zhongqi Cheng,³ Alexander van Geen,³ Mahammad Yunus,⁴ Mahfuzar Rahman,⁴ J. Richard Pilsner,¹ and Joseph Graziano^1,5

¹Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and ²Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York, USA; ³Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA; ⁴ICDDR, B: Centre for Health and Population Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh; ⁵Department of Pharmacology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

Abstract
Background: In Bangladesh, tens of millions of people have been consuming waterborne arsenic for decades. The extent to which As is transported to the fetus during pregnancy has not been well characterized.

Objectives: We therefore conducted a study of 101 pregnant women who gave birth in Matlab, Bangladesh.

Methods: Maternal and cord blood pairs were collected and concentrations of total As were analyzed for 101 pairs, and As metabolites for 30 pairs. Maternal urinary As metabolites and plasma folate, cobalamin, and homocysteine levels in maternal cord pairs were also measured. Household tube well–water As concentrations exceeded the World Health Organization guideline of 10 µg/L in 38% of the cases.

Results: We observed strong associations between maternal and cord blood concentrations of total As (r = 0.93, p < 0.0001) . Maternal and cord blood arsenic metabolites (n = 30) were also strongly correlated: in dimethylarsinate (DMA) (r = 0.94, p < 0.0001) , monomethylarsonate (r = 0.80, p < 0.0001) , arsenite (As⁺³) (r = 0.80, p < 0.0001) , and arsenate (As⁺⁵) (r = 0.89, p < 0.0001) . Maternal homocysteine was a strong predictor of %DMA in maternal urine, maternal blood, and cord blood (β = –6.2, p < 0.02 ; β = –10.9, p < 0.04 ; and β = –13.7, p < 0.04, respectively) . Maternal folate was inversely associated with maternal blood As⁵⁺ (β = 0.56, p < 0.05) , and maternal cobalamin was inversely associated with cord blood As⁵⁺ (β = –1.2, p < 0.01) .

Conclusions: We conclude that exposure to all metabolites of inorganic As occurs in the prenatal period.

Key words: arsenic, B₁₂, blood arsenic metabolites, DMA, folate, homocysteine, maternal, MMA, newborn. Environ Health Perspect 115:1503–1509 (2007) . doi:10.1289/ehp.9906 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 28 June 2007]

Address correspondence to J. Graziano, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, 60 Haven Ave., B1, New York, NY 10032 USA. Telephone: (212) 305-1678. Fax: (212) 305-3857. E-mail: jg24@columbia.edu

We acknowledge I. Haque, S. Yeasmin, and A.M. Wahedul Hoque.

This work was supported by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grants P42 ES10349, P30 ES09089, R01 ESO11601, the Mailman School of Public Health, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 17 November 2006 ; accepted 28 June 2007.