Arsenic crisis in bangladesh
- Arsenic in drinking water could severely poison 50 million people worldwide. Strategies being tested in Bangladesh might help prevent the problem.
- Too many children were dying of diarrhea from drinking surface water contaminated with bacteria.
- By the early 1990s, 95% of Bangladesh's population had access to "safe" water.
- Indian had identified the skin lesions on some patients as arising from arsenic poisoning.
- Drinking 500 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water led to skin cancer in one out of 10 individuals.
- 5 to 10% of all deaths in those older than 30 to arsenic induced internal cancers.
- Drinking water with high levels of arsenic can also lead to neurological and cardiovascular complications.
- So far no one knows the true impact of the poison in Bangladesh
- Unfortunately, the Bangladesh health system is unprepared for a crisis of this magnitude, Health workers can offer ointments to relieve the pain of lesions and to prevent infection, and gangrenous limbs can be amputated, but chronic arsenic poisoning has no real remedy.
- 30% of Bangladesh's tubewells are known to yield more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water.
- @ least 35 million people almost one quarter of the population are drinking potentially fatal levels of arsenic
- Not only Bangladesh, the mineral occurs in the water supply of communities in diverse countries, such as India, Nepal, Vietnam, China, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Taiwan, Mongolia and US.
- Diarrhea and abdominal pain - 1st stage of arsenicosis
- White spots appear mixed up with the black (leucomelanosis), legs swell, and the palms and soles crack and bleed (hyperkeratosis) - 2nd stage of arsenicosis
- In 3rd stage the sores turn gangrenous, kidneys or liver may give way, and in around 20 years, cancers show up.
Arsenic contamination of the groundwater in Bangladesh is a serious problem. In the Ganges Delta, the affected wells are typically more than 20 meters and less than 100 meters deep. Groundwater closer to the surface typically has spent a shorter time in the ground, therefore likely absorbing a lower concentration of arsenic; water deeper than 100 meters is exposed to much older sediments which have already been depleted of arsenic. Human activities are not the primary cause of arsenic found in groundwater in Bangladesh. A team of researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Barnard College, Columbia University, University of Dhaka, Desert Research Institute and University of Tennessee found that the arsenic in groundwater in the region is part of a natural process that predates any recent human activity, such as intensive pumping.
"We were able to separate the recent bomb pulse radiocarbon from the natural carbon signature and found the arsenic levels are now directly tied to a
natural process as opposed to being driven by human activities," Buchholz said. Arsenic in our water is a serious problem that we should solve right away, There are 2 cheap solutions for safer water pond sand filter and 3 pitcher filter.
So what?
- we should take it seriously and do our best to reduce as much as arsenic in water as possible.
What if?
- we have no fresh water?
Says who?
- A. Mushtaque R. Chowdhury and photography by Dilip Mehta
What does this remind me of?
- this remind me of the * Toxins in our drinking water * article
- Too many children were dying of diarrhea from drinking surface water contaminated with bacteria.
- By the early 1990s, 95% of Bangladesh's population had access to "safe" water.
- Indian had identified the skin lesions on some patients as arising from arsenic poisoning.
- Drinking 500 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water led to skin cancer in one out of 10 individuals.
- 5 to 10% of all deaths in those older than 30 to arsenic induced internal cancers.
- Drinking water with high levels of arsenic can also lead to neurological and cardiovascular complications.
- So far no one knows the true impact of the poison in Bangladesh
- Unfortunately, the Bangladesh health system is unprepared for a crisis of this magnitude, Health workers can offer ointments to relieve the pain of lesions and to prevent infection, and gangrenous limbs can be amputated, but chronic arsenic poisoning has no real remedy.
- 30% of Bangladesh's tubewells are known to yield more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water.
- @ least 35 million people almost one quarter of the population are drinking potentially fatal levels of arsenic
- Not only Bangladesh, the mineral occurs in the water supply of communities in diverse countries, such as India, Nepal, Vietnam, China, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Taiwan, Mongolia and US.
- Diarrhea and abdominal pain - 1st stage of arsenicosis
- White spots appear mixed up with the black (leucomelanosis), legs swell, and the palms and soles crack and bleed (hyperkeratosis) - 2nd stage of arsenicosis
- In 3rd stage the sores turn gangrenous, kidneys or liver may give way, and in around 20 years, cancers show up.
Arsenic contamination of the groundwater in Bangladesh is a serious problem. In the Ganges Delta, the affected wells are typically more than 20 meters and less than 100 meters deep. Groundwater closer to the surface typically has spent a shorter time in the ground, therefore likely absorbing a lower concentration of arsenic; water deeper than 100 meters is exposed to much older sediments which have already been depleted of arsenic. Human activities are not the primary cause of arsenic found in groundwater in Bangladesh. A team of researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Barnard College, Columbia University, University of Dhaka, Desert Research Institute and University of Tennessee found that the arsenic in groundwater in the region is part of a natural process that predates any recent human activity, such as intensive pumping.
"We were able to separate the recent bomb pulse radiocarbon from the natural carbon signature and found the arsenic levels are now directly tied to a
natural process as opposed to being driven by human activities," Buchholz said. Arsenic in our water is a serious problem that we should solve right away, There are 2 cheap solutions for safer water pond sand filter and 3 pitcher filter.
So what?
- we should take it seriously and do our best to reduce as much as arsenic in water as possible.
What if?
- we have no fresh water?
Says who?
- A. Mushtaque R. Chowdhury and photography by Dilip Mehta
What does this remind me of?
- this remind me of the * Toxins in our drinking water * article