TY - JOUR
T1 - Cancer incidence following long-term consumption of drinking water with high inorganic selenium content
AU - Vinceti, Marco
AU - Vicentini, Massimo
AU - Wise, Lauren A
AU - Sacchettini, Claudio
AU - Malagoli, Carlotta
AU - Ballotari, Paola
AU - Filippini, Tommaso
AU - Malavolti, Marcella
AU - Rossi, Paolo Giorgi
N1 - Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/9/1
Y1 - 2018/9/1
N2 - Selenium, a trace element to which humans are exposed mainly through diet, has been involved in the etiology of human cancer. We investigated the long-term effects of selenium exposure on cancer incidence using data from a natural experiment in Northern Italy. During the 1970s-1980s, in a part of the Italian municipality of Reggio Emilia, residents were inadvertently exposed to unusually high levels of inorganic hexavalent selenium (selenate) through drinking water. We followed the exposed residents for 28years, generating data on incidence (when available) and mortality rates for selected cancer sites; the remaining municipal residents comprised the unexposed (reference) group. We observed no substantial difference in overall cancer incidence comparing exposed and unexposed cohorts. We detected, however, a higher incidence of cancer at some sites, and for a few of them, namely cancers of the buccal cavity and pharynx, melanoma, urinary tract and lymphoid tissue, the excess incidence was particularly evident in the first period of follow-up but decreased over time. Overall, these results suggest that consumption of water with levels of selenium in its inorganic hexavalent form close to the European standard, 10μg/L, may have unfavourable effects on cancer incidence.
AB - Selenium, a trace element to which humans are exposed mainly through diet, has been involved in the etiology of human cancer. We investigated the long-term effects of selenium exposure on cancer incidence using data from a natural experiment in Northern Italy. During the 1970s-1980s, in a part of the Italian municipality of Reggio Emilia, residents were inadvertently exposed to unusually high levels of inorganic hexavalent selenium (selenate) through drinking water. We followed the exposed residents for 28years, generating data on incidence (when available) and mortality rates for selected cancer sites; the remaining municipal residents comprised the unexposed (reference) group. We observed no substantial difference in overall cancer incidence comparing exposed and unexposed cohorts. We detected, however, a higher incidence of cancer at some sites, and for a few of them, namely cancers of the buccal cavity and pharynx, melanoma, urinary tract and lymphoid tissue, the excess incidence was particularly evident in the first period of follow-up but decreased over time. Overall, these results suggest that consumption of water with levels of selenium in its inorganic hexavalent form close to the European standard, 10μg/L, may have unfavourable effects on cancer incidence.
KW - Dietary Exposure/statistics & numerical data
KW - Drinking Water/chemistry
KW - Environmental Monitoring
KW - Female
KW - Humans
KW - Incidence
KW - Italy/epidemiology
KW - Male
KW - Neoplasms/epidemiology
KW - Selenium/analysis
KW - Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis
KW - Water Supply/statistics & numerical data
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.097
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.097
M3 - Article
C2 - 29674262
VL - 635
SP - 390
EP - 396
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
SN - 0048-9697
ER -