Arsenic Groundwater Contamination in Middle Ganga Plain, Bihar, India: A Future Danger?

The pandemic of arsenic poisoning due to contaminated groundwater in West Bengal, India, and all of Bangladesh has been thought to be limited to the Ganges Delta (the Lower Ganga Plain), despite early survey reports of arsenic contamination in groundwater in the Union Territory of Chandigarh and its...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Environmental health perspectives Vol. 111; no. 9; pp. 1194 - 1201
Main Authors:	Chakraborti, Dipankar, Mukherjee, Subhash C., Pati, Shyamapada, Sengupta, Mrinal K., Rahman, Mohammad M., Chowdhury, Uttam K., Lodh, Dilip, Chanda, Chitta R., Chakraborti, Anil K., Basu, Gautam K.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. National Institutes of Health. Department of Health, Education and Welfare 01-07-2003 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Subjects:	Adult Arsenic Arsenic - analysis Arsenic compounds Arsenic Poisoning - complications Arsenic Poisoning - epidemiology Child Children Female Fetal Death - epidemiology Fetal Death - etiology Groundwater Health Surveys Humans India Lesions Male Malnutrition Nervous System Diseases - epidemiology Nervous System Diseases - etiology Obstetric Labor, Premature - epidemiology Obstetric Labor, Premature - etiology Potable water Pregnancy Skin Skin Diseases - epidemiology Skin Diseases - etiology Soil Pollutants - analysis Tissue Distribution Tube wells Urine Water Pollutants - analysis Water Supply India India, Bihar, Middle Ganga Plain India, Bihar
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	The pandemic of arsenic poisoning due to contaminated groundwater in West Bengal, India, and all of Bangladesh has been thought to be limited to the Ganges Delta (the Lower Ganga Plain), despite early survey reports of arsenic contamination in groundwater in the Union Territory of Chandigarh and its surroundings in the northwestern Upper Ganga Plain and recent findings in the Terai area of Nepal. Anecdotal reports of arsenical skin lesions in villagers led us to evaluate arsenic exposure and sequelae in the Semria Ojha Patti village in the Middle Ganga Plain, Bihar, where tube wells replaced dug wells about 20 years ago. Analyses of the arsenic content of 206 tube wells (95% of the total) showed that 56.8% exceeded arsenic concentrations of 50 μg/L, with 19.9% > 300 μg/L, the concentration predicting overt arsenical skin lesions. On medical examination of a self-selected sample of 550 (390 adults and 160 children), 13% of the adults and 6.3% of the children had typical skin lesions, an unusually high involvement for children, except in extreme exposures combined with malnutrition. The urine, hair, and nail concentrations of arsenic correlated significantly (r = 0.72-0.77) with drinking water arsenic concentrations up to 1,654 μg/L. On neurologic examination, arsenic-typical neuropathy was diagnosed in 63% of the adults, a prevalence previously seen only in severe, subacute exposures. We also observed an apparent increase in fetal loss and premature delivery in the women with the highest concentrations of arsenic in their drinking water. The possibility of contaminated groundwater at other sites in the Middle and Upper Ganga Plain merits investigation.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2
ISSN:	0091-6765 1552-9924
DOI:	10.1289/ehp.5966