A city in Chile accidentally poisoned with arsenic has seen its death rate from breast cancer drop by 50%, according to a study from the University of Berkeley.
Arsenic is a powerful poison, it is even nicknamed “the poison of kings and the king of poisons”. However, it could have beneficial effects on health. A study carried out in Chile thus shows that there is a link between arsenic and a 50% drop in deaths linked to breast cancer. According to scientists at the University of California behind the study, these results are “staggering” and could pave the way for new treatments.
In 1958, Antofagasta – a town in northern Chile – chose to supply its drinking water network from a geothermal source originating in the Andes. Years later, it is discovered that this water contains more than 800 micrograms of arsenic per liter, a figure 80 times higher than the levels recommended by the WHO.
An arsenic filter was finally installed in 1970, after some residents began to show symptoms from the exposure. Surprisingly, instead of seeing an increase in the death rate, the researchers found that breast cancer deaths had halved during the period of exposure to arsenic. The reduction rate even reached 70% among those under 60.
Effective against certain leukaemias
How to explain these impressive results? According to researchers at the Stanford Cancer Institute, breast cancer cells are sensitive and therefore destroyed by arsenic, while healthy cells are more resistant to the poison.
This is not the first time that arsenic has been used in medicine. Hippocrates, the father of all physicians, used it in the 5th century BC to treat skin ulcers. And closer to home, arsenic trioxide was approved in 2000 in the United States as an effective treatment for certain very rare types of leukemia.
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