Arsenic in Water Lowers Immunity to H1N1 Flu Virus

A study has shown that common levels of arsenic exposure through drinking water increases one's susceptibility to H1N1 influenza

Everyone knows that drinking adequate amount of water is essential to health, but drinking clean uncontaminated water proves to be even more important in one recent study.

In the study, it was found that one's immune response to influenza A (H1N1) flu virus can be seriously weakened by even low levels of arsenic that is commonly found in contaminated well water.

Scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Dartmouth Medical School found that mice that had drank water laced with 100 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic for five weeks displayed feeble initial immune response to H1N1 infection. When a response finally kicked in days later, it was too late and too overwhelming.

"There was a massive infiltration of immune cells to the lungs and a massive inflammatory response, which led to bleeding and damage in the lung," said Joshua Hamilton, the MBL's Chief Academic and Scientific Officer and a senior scientist in the MBL's Bay Paul Center.

As a result, death toll for the infection was significantly higher for mice that were exposed to arsenic than those who weren't.

Outbreak of H1N1 & Arsenic-Laden Water

In the recent H1N1 outbreak, the scientists also discovered that Mexico, where the H1N1 virus was first reported, has large areas of well water containing very high levels of arsenic.

As arsenic does not accumulate in the body, Hamilton believes that "for arsenic to have health consequences, it requires exposure day after day, year after year, such as through drinking water."

In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency considers 10 ppb arsenic in drinking water "safe". However, according to Hamilton, concentrations of 100 ppb and higher are commonly found in well water in many parts of the US where arsenic is geologically abundant, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Florida, and large parts of the upper Midwest, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountains.

When a person's arsenic exposure is high enough, the immune health is not the only system it damages. Hamilton's laboratory had found that arsenic will also disrupts the body's entire hormonal system, causing cancer, heart disease, diabetes, as well as reproductive and developmental disorders in the long-term.