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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Household arsenic and acrolein exposures and risk of urothelial cell carcinoma

Hannah Peterson1 ,  Kyle A. Richards2 ,  Tudor Borza2 ,  Abigail M. Wiedmer2 ,  Maria T. Jabbour2 ,  Margaret A. Knoedler2 ,  Erin Mani3 ,  Christa Dahman3 ,  Lauren Trepanier1*
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1 Department of Medical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
2 Department of Urology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
3 Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
JCTR, 00065 https://doi.org/10.36922/jctr.24.00065
Received: 28 September 2024 | Revised: 8 January 2025 | Accepted: 16 April 2025 | Published online: 21 May 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Background: Smoking accounts for about half of bladder cancer cases in the United States; however, the etiology of up to one-third of urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC) remains poorly understood. Acrolein and arsenic are known bladder carcinogens with documented household exposures. Aim: This study aimed to (i) determine whether urinary and household exposures to acrolein and inorganic arsenic (iAs) are higher in newly diagnosed UCC patients than in those with benign urologic disease, (ii) assess whether urinary concentrations reach genotoxic thresholds, and (iii) evaluate how these exposures vary by urbanicity and area deprivation indices. Methods: Patients were recruited from the Urology Clinic at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and provided urine, drinking water, and household dust samples. Results: Acrolein exposures (as its stable metabolite 3-hydroxy-propyl-mercapturic acid) did not differ between cases and controls. Urinary arsenic concentrations were higher in cases than in controls but did not reach statistical significance (p=0.08). Unadjusted urinary iAs concentrations (reflecting urothelial exposures) ranged from 0.01 to 0.71 μM in cases and 0.02 – 0.14 μM in controls (p=0.05). No patients reached genotoxic urinary concentrations of iAs (10 μM) at a single time point. Arsenic concentrations in household dust were higher in UCC (0.42 ng/cm2) compared to control households (0.29 ng/cm2; p=0.007). Dust arsenic levels also correlated with urinary iAs across all patients (r = 0.41; p=0.004). Drinking water arsenic was associated with higher area deprivation percentiles (r = 0.30, p=0.046) and with households from more rural areas (p=0.039) but did not differ significantly between cases and controls. Conclusion: Our data suggest that indoor dust arsenic, rather than arsenic in drinking water, was a likely source of urinary arsenic exposure in this primarily non-smoking population. Relevance for patients: Simple in-home arsenic mitigation strategies, such as using high-efficiency particulate air vacuum cleaners and air filtration units, may help reduce exposure for patients diagnosed with UCC.

Keywords
Bladder cancer
Non-smokers
Household dust
Inorganic arsenic
Drinking water
Funding
This work was supported by a pilot grant from the University of Wisconsin–Madison Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, funded by UL1TR002373 from NIH/NCATS. Tudor Borza is supported by AHRQ career development award K08HS028474.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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