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Association between skin lesion and arsenic concentration in hair by mixed bivariate model in chronic arsenic exposure

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Abstract

Skin lesion is one of the important health hazards caused by high intake of arsenic through drinking water and diet, and the other hazards include several types of cancers (viz. skin, lung and urinary bladder), ischemic heart disease, hypertension, etc. Two most important biomarkers to measure arsenic intake in a human body are arsenic concentration in urine and hair. The primary interest of this paper is the association between skin lesion and arsenic concentration in hair for participants with chronic arsenic exposure from West Bengal, India, using bivariate regression model based on copula function. The result showed participants with high arsenic concentration in hair had higher incidence of developing skin lesion. Arsenic concentration in hair was significantly higher for the participants with an arsenic concentration in water > 10 mg/L.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by a research grant funded by the World Bank under the National Agricultural Innovative Project “Arsenic in Food Chain: Cause, Effect and Mitigation” from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Govt. of India (Ref. No. NAIP/C4/C1005, dated 12.6.2007). The authors express their thanks to Dr. K Bhattacharya, Mr. R. N. Guha Mazumder, Anath Pramanick, Gopal Modak and Goutam Dutta for their help in the execution of this study. Special thanks are also due to all the patients and villagers for their participation and cooperation in this study. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies. This scientific work is the responsibility of the researchers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Statistics, Acharya Prafulla Chandra College, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700131, India

    Arabinda Das

  2. School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700032, India

    Anirban Biswas

  3. D.N.G.M. Research Foundation, Kolkata, 700053, India

    Debendra Nath Guha Mazumder

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  1. Arabinda Das
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  2. Anirban Biswas
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  3. Debendra Nath Guha Mazumder
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Correspondence to Arabinda Das.

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Detailed statistical analysis of the mixed bivariate model with copula can be found in supplementary material.

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Das, A., Biswas, A. & Guha Mazumder, D.N. Association between skin lesion and arsenic concentration in hair by mixed bivariate model in chronic arsenic exposure. Environ Geochem Health 40, 2359–2369 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-018-0102-3

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