Arsenic crisis in Bangladesh.

• Autores: A. Mushtaque R. Chowdhury
• Localización: Scientific American, ISSN 0036-8733, Vol. 291, Nº. 2, 2004, págs. 86-91
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The article looks at strategies being taken to prevent arsenic in drinking water in Bangladesh. In the 1970s and 1980s the Bangladesh government, along with international aid agencies spearheaded by the United Nations Children's Fund, undertook an ambitious project to bring clean water to the nation's villages. The preferred solution was a tubewell: a hand-operated pump that sucks water, through a pipe, from a shallow underground aquifer. Alas, somebody--everybody--neglected to check the water for arsenic. Today around 30 percent of Bangladesh's tubewells are known to yield more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water. Arsenic in drinking water constitutes the largest case of mass poisoning in history. The U.S. National Research Council concluded in 1999 that the combined cancer risk from ingesting more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water could easily lead to one in 100 people dying of cancer. Drinking water with high levels of arsenic can also lead to neurological and cardiovascular complications. According to the British Geological Survey, the arsenic is adsorbed onto particles of iron oxyhydroxide, which are reduced by organic extracts in the water itself, releasing arsenic. If so, the mineral has always been in the water. INSETS: THE DISTRIBUTION OF ARSENIC;CHEAP SOLUTIONS FOR SAFER WATER.