Population profile and residential environment of an urban poor community in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Objectives: A population survey was conducted in an urban shantytown in Bangladesh, as a baseline study of future epidemiological studies. This paper aims to describe the findings of the study, including the population profile and residential environment of the urban poor.

Methods: We conducted a complete count household survey in an urban poor community in Dhaka.

Differences in urinary arsenic metabolites between diabetic and non-diabetic subjects in Bangladesh.

Ingestion of inorganic arsenic (iAs) is considered to be related to the development of diabetes mellitus. In order to clarify the possible differences in the metabolism in diabetics, we measured urinary iAs metabolites in diabetic cases and non-diabetic control subjects in Faridpur, an arsenic-contaminated area in Bangladesh. Physician-diagnosed type 2 diabetic cases (140 persons) and non-diabetic controls (180 persons) were recruited.

Enhanced carcinogenicity by coexposure to arsenic and iron and a novel remediation system for the elements in well drinking water.

Various carcinomas including skin cancer are explosively increasing in arsenicosis patients who drink arsenic-polluted well water, especially in Bangladesh. Although well drinking water in the cancer-prone areas contains various elements, very little is known about the effects of elements except arsenic on carcinogenicity. In order to clarify the carcinogenic effects of coexposure to arsenic and iron, anchorage-independent growth and invasion in human untransformed HaCaT and transformed A431 keratinocytes were examined.

Barium inhibits arsenic-mediated apoptotic cell death in human squamous cell carcinoma cells.

Our fieldwork showed more than 1 μM (145.1 μg/L) barium in about 3 μM (210.7 μg/L) arsenic-polluted drinking well water (n = 72) in cancer-prone areas in Bangladesh, while the mean concentrations of nine other elements in the water were less than 3 μg/L.

Incidence of young onset insulin-requiring diabetes mellitus among 18- to 30-year-olds in Dhaka, Bangladesh (1994-2003).

Little information is available regarding the epidemiology of young onset insulin-requiring diabetes mellitus (IRDM). We described the incidence of young onset IRDM and its trend in males and females of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Subsequently, factors related to possible sex difference were investigated.