ORIGINAL PAPER Cancer risk estimation from dietary arsenic, a new approach from longitudinal cohort study Anirban Biswas 1,2,4 • Arabinda Das 3 • Debasree Deb 1 • Aloke Ghose 1 • Debendra Nath Guha Mazumder 1 Ó Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract Inorganic arsenic is a carcinogen and consumption in low dose may lead to cancer. We estimated the cancer risk of the participants from arsenic endemic regions of West Bengal, India. The probable cancer risk was estimated following the assessment of daily inorganic arsenic intake through drinking water and diets of 20 participants for three consecutive years who had been using low arsenic water in the Indian context (median arsenic concentration in the study Years-I, II and III were 22, 16, 13 lg/l respectively). Probable cancer risk of the population was 2.80 9 10 -4 , 2.94 9 10 -4 , 3.12 9 10 -4 in the three respective study years (Year-I, II and III); just higher than the US EPA risk level of concern. The arsenic species content of the paired raw, cooked rice and urine was estimated in the as is taken basis. The major diet component, rice contained 72–86% inorganic arsenic whereas urine contains 70% organic arsenic on an average. The cancer risk assess- ment has been proposed to be modified by inclusion of urine arsenic release, considering the fact of arsenic release through urine. The risk became 1.28 9 10 -5 , 1.13 9 10 -5 , 1.01 9 10 -5 in the study Year-I, II and III respectively, considering urinary arsenic release, attributed the consideration of urine arsenic release into probable cancer risk estimation. Keywords Arsenic  Water  Diet  Intake dose  Urine  Arsenic species  Cancer risk 1 Introduction Arsenic contamination in ground water has severely impacted the mass of different regions in the world, including Bangladesh and West Bengal, India (NRC 1999). Individuals, chronically exposed to arsenic, are susceptible to arsenicosis and the symptoms are skin lesions, hyperk- eratosis predominantly on the palms and soles of the feet, vascular diseases, peripheral neuropathy, and diabetes mellitus may occur (Smith et al. 2002). Chronic exposure to inorganic arsenic is associated with the development of heart disease, diabetes (Yoshida et al. 2004), cancer in different organs like lungs, skin, kidney, and bladder (NRC 1999; Tseng 2007). In the human body, liver is the main site of arsenic metabolism, and the renal route is the most important excretion pathway (NRC 1999). Main arsenic exposure route for human is drinking arsenic contaminated water and foods which are grown on arsenic contaminated soil and using contaminated ground water (Chakraborti et al. 2001, 2004; Das et al. 2004; Rahman et al. 2006; Roychowdhury 2008; Biswas and Santra 2012; Guha Mazumder et al. 2013, 2014; Biswas et al. 2014a, b). Among the agricultural products, rice is one of the major arsenic source as where it is grown on contaminated soil using contaminated ground water espe- cially in endemic regions like West Bengal (Meharg 2004; Williams et al. 2006; Mondal and Polya 2008; Roy- chowdhury 2008; Signes-Pastor et al. 2008; Chowdhury et al. 2010; Halder et al. 2013; Biswas et al. 2014c). High arsenic concentration in the vegetables grown on arsenic rich soils and irrigated with arsenic contaminated ground water has also been reported from these endemic regions (Alam et al. 2003; Roychowdhury 2008; Biswas et al. 2012). Cooking of rice with arsenic-rich water leads to & Anirban Biswas anirbanbsws@yahoo.co.in 1 D. N. G. M Research Foundation, Kolkata 700053, India 2 Department of Environmental Science, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, West Bengal 741235, India 3 Department of Statistics, Acharya Prafulla Chandra College, Kolkata, West Bengal 700131, India 4 Present Address: School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal 700032, India 123 Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-018-1513-5