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Clearly the first priority should focus on mitigation efforts to lower arsenic exposure. But this is a very exciting and significant finding, and implies that folic acid has therapeutic potential for people who have been exposed to arsenic. said Mary Gamble, Ph.D., a researcher at Columbia University and the lead author on the study that was funded by the NIEHS. Although additional studies are needed, the results of this study suggest that a simple, low-cost nutritional intervention may help to prevent some of the long-term health consequences associated with arsenic exposure for the many populations at risk.

Folic acid supplementation enhanced the detoxification of arsenic to a form that is more readily excreted in urine, said Gamble. The study results are published in the October issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study is jointly supported through NIEHS and the Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP).

Gamble explains how this detoxification process is able to lower the levels of arsenic found in the blood. She explains how the folic acid increased the methylation or detoxification of arsenic in the body, allowing the body to change some of the more toxic metabolite, or methylarsonic (MMA) acid, to a form that could more easily be excreted from the body.

Chronic arsenic exposure currently affects 100 million persons worldwide, including populations in Bangladesh. The arsenic levels in drinking water in some parts of Bangladesh reach as high as 100 times the World Health Organization and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines, which set a limit of 10 micrograms per liter for arsenic in drinking water.

The initial supplement study included 200 folate-deficient partici
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