Air Quality Guidelines - World Health Organization Regional Office ...

inorganic pollutants
127
Guidelines
Arsenic is a human carcinogen. Present risk estimates have been derived
from studies in exposed human populations in Sweden and the United
States. When assuming a linear dose–response relationship, a safe level for
inhalation exposure cannot be recommended. At an air concentration of
1 µg/m 3 , an estimate of lifetime risk is 1.5 × 10 –3 . This means that the excess
lifetime risk level is 1:10 000, 1:100 000 or 1:1 000 000 at an air concentration
of about 66 ng/m 3 , 6.6 ng/m 3 or 0.66 ng/m 3 , respectively.
References
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W.H. & Fensterheim, R.J., ed. Arsenic: industrial, biomedical and environmental
perspectives. Proceedings of the Arsenic Symposium,
Gaithersburg, MD. New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1983.
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1987 (IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of the Carcinogenic Risk
of Chemicals to Humans, Supplement 7).
3. Health assessment document for inorganic arsenic. Washington, DC, US
Environmental Protection Agency, 1984 (Final report EPA-600-8-83-
021F).
4. INTEGRATED RISK INFORMATION SYSTEM (IRIS). Carcinogenicity assessment
for lifetime exposure to arsenic (http://www.epa.gov/ngispgm3/
iris/subst/0278.htm#I.B). Cincinnati, OH, US Environmental Protection
Agency (accessed January 1994).
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6. PINTO, S.S. ET AL. Mortality experience in relation to a measured arsenic
trioxide exposure. Environmental health perspectives, 19: 127–130
(1977).
7. LEE-FELDSTEIN, A. Arsenic and respiratory cancer in man: follow-up of
an occupational study. In: Lederer, W.H. & Fensterheim, R.J., ed. Arsenic:
industrial, biomedical and environmental perspectives. Proceedings
of the Arsenic Symposium, Gaithersburg, MD. New York, Van Nostrand
Reinhold, 1983, pp. 245–254.
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an updated view based on recent data from two copper smelter
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for Europe, 1987 (WHO Regional Publications, European Series,
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