Drinking arsenic-contaminated water can change the heart structure of young people.

Original title: Drinking arsenic-contaminated water can change the heart structure of young people
A recent study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging, found that drinking arsenic-contaminated water alters the heart structure of young people, increasing their risk of heart disease in the future.
, many Indian tribal communities and water sources in rural areas are contaminated with arsenic. For the study, researchers at Columbia University's Melman School of Public Health analyzed urine samples from 1,337 Indians in Oklahoma, Indiana, and Southern and North Dakota, where arsenic contamination was high, to detect arsenic exposure after drinking arsenic-contaminated water and to assess the size, shape and function of their hearts with an echo cardiac chart. The average age of these volunteers was 30.7 years, of which 61 per cent were women. At the beginning of the five-year study, no one had diabetes or heart disease.the
researchers found that the volunteers were more exposed to arsenic than the general U.S. population, and when their urine had twice as much arsenic as normal, they were 47 percent more likely to have a 47 percent increased risk of left-center cell hypertrophobic hypertrophobic hypertrophobic hypertrophobic hypertrophobic hypertrophobic hypertrophobic. Although left-cell hypertrophoto is not a disease, it is often a precursor to heart disease, and increased correlation between arsenic exposure and changes in heart structure in people with high blood pressure suggests that people with preclinical heart disease may be more susceptible to arsenic's toxic effects on the heart, the researchers note.
arsenic is one of the most common and most health-hazardous chemical pollutants. Arsenic-containing metals can be produced from the extraction, smelting and production of arsenic or arsenic compounds as raw materials, which can produce arsenic-containing waste (waste water, waste gas and slag) and cause environmental pollution. At least 50 million people worldwide are at risk of arsenic poisoning, according to the World Health Organization. The researchers say they don't yet know if this change in heart structure is reversible after reduced arsenic exposure, and given that cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of premature death in adults around the world, their new study is even more alarming, and the dangers of arsenic and other metal contaminants should not be ignored. (Reporter Haiying Liu)