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World facing increasing threat of arsenic poisoning

Researchers believe about 140 million people, mainly in developing countries, are being poisoned by arsenic in their drinking water.

Scientists at the Royal Geographical Society meeting in London said that arsenic exposure will lead to higher rates of cancer in the future. According to Peter Ravenscroft, a research associate at Cambridge University, “It’s a global problem, present in 70 countries, probably more.”

Potential hazard

Some of the effects of arsenic consumption do not appear until decades after initial exposure. One in every ten people with high concentrations of arsenic in their water will die from it. So far, the international response is not adequate to resolve the problem.

Once the source of the arsenic has been identified, there are potential solutions that can reduce the risk of exposure:

 Digging deeper wells
 Purifying the water
 Identifying alternative clean water supplies

In an attempt to be proactive, governments should test all wells in order to assess the threat to communities.

Problems for agriculture

Using water for agriculture is also a source of arsenic poisoning. For example, in Asian countries, rice is grown in paddy fields that are often flooded with water from the contaminated wells. The arsenic in the water is absorbed from the soil and transferred to the grain. Clearly, this presents a problem for countries where rice is the staple food; however, Andrew Meharg from Aberdeen University believes it could be an issue for the UK, specifically in communities that consume rice frequently.

For further information:
 WHO drinking water quality

Last modified on September 25 2007.

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29 September 2007 17:50, by Dr.D.K.Raut, MBBS,MD,FIPHA

World facing increasing threat of arsenic poisoning

Dear All Congratulations for bringing out article on increasing threat of arsenic poisoning. An elevated arsenic level in drinking waters is the major cause of arsenicosis in the world. Ground water contamination in excess of WHO guideline value of 0.01mg/l has been reported from USA, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Hungary and many countries of South East Asia like India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and China. However, largest number of people in the world affected from chronic arsenic toxicity due to drinking of arsenic contaminated ground water belongs to Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal and China. It is estimated that, some 30 million persons of the region may be at risk for arsenic related diseases.

Diseases originated from arsenic contaminated water are exhibited alarmingly in the river basins of the Ganga-Brahmaputra flowing through different parts of West Bengal in India and Bangladesh. In India, arsenicosis was first detected from Dermatology Out Patients Department of School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata in the year 1982 from patients of a village of North 24Parganas district of West Bengal. During the last two decades the problem has increased tremendously. As per the random sample survey conducted by Govt. of West Bengal till June 2002, over 13.8 million people in 76 blocks of 8 districts of the State are estimated to be at risk. About 2600 villages of these blocks showed arsenic content well above the permissible limit of 0.05mg/l set by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Recently cases of arsenicosis have been found from the states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, U.P. and Chhatisgarh.

WHO first assessed the risk of arsenic in drinking water in 1958 by producing the international standards for drinking water. Realising the serious health impacts of arsenic contamination in the South East Asia region of WHO (SEARO), the regional office for South East Asia since 1996 has provided policy and technical support to National Governments of the affected countries. In 1997, WHO-South East Asia Regional office (SEARO) held a regional conference of experts and made 20 key recommendations for arsenic mitigation. In 2002, WHO, SEARO the Regional office launch an arsenic mitigation initiative. The programme strategy focuses on WHO’s normative role in applying the health risk assessment paradigm for the mitigation of health impact of arsenic exposure. One of the main goals of arsenic mitigation initiative is to build capacity through human resource development. The ultimate aim of this goal is to set the norms, standards and guidelines for harmonised protocol on case detection, management and surveillance. However for last 4-5 years increasing problem of Arsenicosis has not been given much attention by the Government authority and also by International organizations like WHO, UNICEF, etc.This important Environmental Health problem needs attention of all the concerns for its mitigation

Thanks Dr.D.K.Raut, MBBS,MD,FIPHA Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Room No. 622 VM Medical College & Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi-110029 (India) Ph. (O) +91 11 2671 4819 (Tel/fax) (M) +91 11 9911367336 (R) +91 11 2625 7911 E-Mail: drdeepakraut@gmail.com, drdeepakraut@yahoo.com

Former: Professor & Head, Department of Epidemiology, All India Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, Kolkata-700 073 (W.B.) INDIA

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