Health officials look for arsenic source

Jan. 21, 2009

Investigators in the Blackville arsenic cases are looking at common foods eaten by some of the people who have high levels of arsenic, says a health department spokesperson.

Meghan Cumby said they have been speaking with the people from the four original cases and because Blackville is a small town there would be some foods they eat in common.

"Of course there are commonalities."

Last week health officials confirmed more cases of Blackville residents who tested positive for high levels of arsenic, which brings the total to seven since May.

The investigators are working with everyone involved to try to eliminate possible common food sources so the people can be re-tested, she said.

"There's different pieces of it and we have to all work togethere."

Cumby said most food is regulated by Health Canada and inspected by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and a lot of the food sold in the Blackville area would be sold across Canada.

"They wouldn't likely be the cause of an outbreak at a local level."

The department is looking to see if any of the people testing positive have anything in common, but Cumby couldn't say if they found anything.

"That's pretty much all I can say right now."

During a conference call with media last week, regional medical officer Denis Allard said the latest cases have been the organic form of arsenic, which is not a health concern because the body is able to excrete it before it causes health problems.

Andrew Grant is an associate professor in organic and bioorganic chemistry at Mount Allison University and said the proper term is organoarsenic and that it isn't as harmful as the inorganic form.

Arsenic isn't alone in having an organic and inorganic form with mercury as another example of an element that can be toxic, but has one form more harmful than the other, he said.

Grant has been following the situation in Bangladesh where he said people are drinking water with high levels of arsenic and have started to collect rain water to avoid it.

"There's literally millions of people suffering from arsenic poisoning there. "

Inorganic arsenic is usually associated with minerals, like table salt, is found in nature and is soluble in water, he said.

"Arsenic would basically be classified as a metal."

Grant said the reason one form of arsenic may be more toxic than another is because of the way they interact with compounds in the body and would gradually would be released over a period of a few weeks.

"It's slowly getting excreted."

One of the suspects in the Health Department's investigation is fish, which Grant said could develop elevated arsenic levels from eating smaller organisms that process inorganic arsenic.

"There must be arsenic in the water, which would be inorganic."

But Grant said arsenic is found in nature with high content in some areas, like Bangladesh where it dissolves in the groundwater.

"It's totally natural in some areas."

Meanwhile there will be a public meeting with Conservation Council of New Brunswick's Inka Milewski, the science advisor for the non-profit environmental group. The meeting is being held at the St. Raphael's Church Hall at 7 p.m.