Arsenic in Drinking Water
KEY POINTS
The authors purpose in this article is to inform us on the problem of arsenic in from underground water supply in places such as Bangladesh. 30% of Bangladesh tubewells are known to yield more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water with 5 to 10% providing more than six times the amount. The government specifies that 50 micrograms is a dangerous amount of arsenic. It means that 35 million people could be drinking water with a fatal amount of arsenic in them. Arsenic isn't a problem only in Bangladesh, but also in countries like the United States and China. There are three stages to the symptoms of arsenic poisoning. The first signs are black spots on the upper chest, back or arms. In the second stage, white spots mix with the black spots. In the third stage, kidneys and livers give way and in 20 years the person would get cancers. Solving the problem of arsenic permanently would take a lot of money and a lot of time.
MY THOUGHTS
After reading this article I am worried for myself and others health. I believe that there is arsenic in drinking water all around the United States. I think that we need to put a stop to having harmful chemicals ending up in our water because that is very dangerous for someones health. People need to be aware of this problem or else they may never know. They need to become educated on what they are really drinking and then they can make the choice of changing their lifestyle in a certain way or not.
- 1970'S and 1980's Bangladesh government along with UNICEF took a project to bring clean water to the nation's villages.
- Children were dying of diarrhea from drinking surface water contaminated with bacteria.
- The preferred solution was a tubewell: a simple, hardy, hand-operated pump that sucks water through a pipe from a shallow underground aquifer
- The tubewell became a prized possession: lessened burden of woman who no longer had to trek long distances with pots and pails. Provided a pathogen-free water to drink
- By early 1990s, 95% of Bangladesh population had access to safe water, all of it through 10 million tubewells.
- Everyone neglected to check the water for arsenic
- As early as 1983, dermatologist Kshitish C. Saha of School of Tropical Medicine in neighboring Kolkata,India, had identified the skin lesions on some patients as arising from arsenic poison.
- He traced mineral to water from tubewells. Patients were mostly from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, which shares aquifers with Bangladesh
- Many aquifers in West Bengal were severely contaminated with arsenic
- British Geological Survey conducted extensive test on Bangladesh water supply in 1993 and pronounced it safe, not testing for arsenic
- The same year, Abdul W. Khan of Department of Public Health Engineering in Bangladesh discovered arsenic in the tubewell
- Today, 30% of Bangladesh tubewells are known to yield more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water with 5 to 10% providing more than six times the amount
- Bangladesh govt specifies more than 50 micrograms per liter as being dangerous
- That means at leas 35 million people are drinking potentially fatal levels of arsenic
- Another concern is that Bangladeshis may be ingesting arsenic through a second route: the grain they eat two or three times a day.
- Rice fields are irrigated with pumped underground water in dry months
- Researchers from University of Aberdeen in Scotland found that arsenic content of local rice varies from 50 to 180ppb. Vegetables contained 100ppm of arsenic
- Arsenic is also in communities of India, Nepal, Vietnam, China, Argentina, U.S
- Arsenic in drinking water constitutes the largest case of mass poisoning in history
- First sign of poisoning is black spots on the upper chest, back and arms, known as melanosis.
- Palms of hands or soles of feet become hard and lose sensation
- Patient may suffer conjunctivitis, bronchitis and diarrhea and abdominal pain
- Symptoms describe the first stage of arsenicosis, as arsenic-induced ailments are known.
- In second stage, white spots appear mixed up with black, legs swell and palms and soles crack and bleed
- Bangladesh health system is unprepared for a crisis of this magnitude. Health workers can offer ointments to relieve pain of lesions and to prevent infection.
- One treatment, chelation requires the patient to ingest a chemical that binds to arsenic and aids its excretion
- The source of-and the solution to Bangladesh's arsenic problem lies underground.
- Nation is largely a delta
- Most of poisoned aquifers are shallow from 10 to 70 meters deep and lie to the south of the country.
- BGS notes that around 18,000 years ago, when sea level dropped by 100 meters, rivers cut deep channels into existing sediment.
- Valleys filled up with gray clay that hold the positon
- Bangladesh government created the Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation and Water Supply Project in 1998 to which effort the World Bank provided a loan of $32.5 million
The authors purpose in this article is to inform us on the problem of arsenic in from underground water supply in places such as Bangladesh. 30% of Bangladesh tubewells are known to yield more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water with 5 to 10% providing more than six times the amount. The government specifies that 50 micrograms is a dangerous amount of arsenic. It means that 35 million people could be drinking water with a fatal amount of arsenic in them. Arsenic isn't a problem only in Bangladesh, but also in countries like the United States and China. There are three stages to the symptoms of arsenic poisoning. The first signs are black spots on the upper chest, back or arms. In the second stage, white spots mix with the black spots. In the third stage, kidneys and livers give way and in 20 years the person would get cancers. Solving the problem of arsenic permanently would take a lot of money and a lot of time.
MY THOUGHTS
After reading this article I am worried for myself and others health. I believe that there is arsenic in drinking water all around the United States. I think that we need to put a stop to having harmful chemicals ending up in our water because that is very dangerous for someones health. People need to be aware of this problem or else they may never know. They need to become educated on what they are really drinking and then they can make the choice of changing their lifestyle in a certain way or not.