Mothers who drink arsenic-contaminated water are far more likely to have children die of a rare lung disease and cancer, U.S. and Chilean researchers say. Such mothers also have a higher rate of still births, say researchers led by University of California-Berkeley. The team reached its conclusions in a study of Antofagasta and Mejillones, Chile, which tapped arsenic-laden rivers to supply water from 1958 to 1971, when an arsenic-removal plant was installed. The research found children who drank the tainted water were seven times more likely to develop lung cancer and 12 times more likely to develop bronchiectasis, a rare lung infection, than other children in Chile. For those exposed in utero and as children, the bronchiectasis risk was an "astonishing" 46 times greater, says the study posted in the online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives. © Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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