NEW EXHIBIT AT NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE FOCUSES ON HEALTH PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH ARSENIC

WASHINGTON - The National Museum of Health and Medicine has unveiled an exhibit highlighting the developing science of medical geology used by its parent organization, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) to study health problems associated with arsenic. The exhibit will run indefinitely.

The exhibit, "Research Matters: Environmental and Toxicological Effects of Arsenic," explains how geoscience tools are augmenting the skills of medical and environmental professionals to understand exposure to toxic metals and metalloids such as arsenic.

"I am delighted to continue the tradition at the National Museum of Health and Medicine to focus on the AFIP's scientific and medical research," said Dr. Adrianne Noe, museum director. "Visitors can learn through the Research Matters exhibit's series about the relevance of scientific research on their lives as well as the role U.S. military medicine plays in world health."

Arsenic can be an organic or inorganic element that is found in nature and is usually present in the form of compounds with sulfur and with many metals such as iron, copper, cobalt, lead, and zinc. A carcinogen, arsenic can be fatal if ingested. In 1999 the National Academy of Sciences reported that arsenic in drinking water can cause bladder, lung, and skin cancer. It may also contribute to liver and kidney cancer. Levels under 60 parts per million can cause nausea, vomiting, and abnormal heart rhythms.

The exhibit focuses on the arsenic investigations undertaken by the Biophysical Toxicology Branch of the AFIP's Division of Environmental Pathology. In China, where severe arsenic poisoning struck at least 3,000 residents, the investigation revealed it was due to consumption of chili peppers dried over fires fueled by high-arsenic coal. The AFIP also studied arsenic poisonings caused by coal-burning power plants and contaminated drinking water in Mexico, Chile, and West Bengal.

The AFIP worked with geoscientists, biologists, chemists, epidemiologists, toxicologists, and other medical scientists in successful collaborations with other federal agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the National Cancer Institute. A reference book has been prepared that describes the link between geological risk factors and human diseases, according to Jose A. Centeno, PhD., chief of the biophysical toxicology branch. His co-investigator is Dr. Florabel G. Mullick, principal deputy director of the AFIP.

"Arsenic has also been used as a pharmaceutical agent," said Jim Connor, Ph.D., the museum's assistant director for collections. "Arsenic has a long history in medicine for both good and bad and the way this exhibit tells the story is quite exciting, because it is bold and innovative. Some victims of arsenic poisoning were deliberately murdered, while for others its ingestion or inhalation was purely accidental."

An artifact from the Office of the N.Y. Medical Examiner is on display to illustrate arsenic as an intentional poison in a 1935 murder victim. The head and shoulders of a girl who died naturally in the late 1800s and was embalmed using an arsenic-laced formula illustrates the preservative powers of arsenic and calls attention to the possibility of it contaminating drinking water.

The topic of safe arsenic levels is currently in the news. Congress ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to have a new arsenic standard in place by this summer when it amended the 1974 Safe Water Drinking Act last fall.