Arsenic in Drinking Water
Author/Source: A. Mushtaque R. Chowdhury
Main Points:
Authors Main Point:
In this article the author is talking about how arsenic is in the water people from Bangladesh drink from and how it is dangerous. Arsenic in drinking water could poison 50 million people worldwide. 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 cancer. Drinking water with high levels of arsenic can also lead to neurological and cardiovascular complications. To find a permanent solution to arsenic in drinking water will take many years. It will not only take time but also money and lots of it.
My Own Thoughts On The Topic:
This is killing many people and yet nothing is being done. I am now sacred to drink water. I think that scientists should put their focus on preventing toxic chemicals in the water supply. I don't think I could blame the people for neglecting that arsenic could have been in the water supply. I think that more people should know what is in the stuff they drink and know what it is doing to them. If more people know maybe something could be done about the arsenic in drinking water.
Author/Source: A. Mushtaque R. Chowdhury
Main Points:
- Arsenic in drinking water could severely poison 50 million people worldwide.
- Strategies being tested in Bangladesh might help prevent the problem.
- A cold, clear, sparkling flow gushes from the tube well where Pinjra Begum used to collect drinking water for her family.
- Married at age 15 to a mill worker, her skin began to turn blotchy, then ultimately gangrenous and repulsive.
- Her husband remarried. In 2000 she died of cancer, at 26 years of age, leaving three children.
- Pinjra Begum was poisoned by the water
- Too many children were dying of diarrhea from drinking surface water contaminated with bacteria.
- Today around 30 percent of Bangladesh’s tube wells are known to yield more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water, with 5 to 10 percent providing more than six times this amount.
- Another concern is that Bangladeshis may be ingesting arsenic through a second route: theg rain they eat two or three times a day.
- Arsenic in drinking water thus constitutes the largest case of mass poisoning in history,dwarfing Chernobyl.
- First sign of poisoning, which may appear as long as 10 years after someone starts drinking arsenic-laden water, is black spots on the upper chest, back and arms, known as melanosis.
- The patient may also suffer from conjunctivitis, bronchitis and, at very high concentrations of arsenic, diarrhea and abdominal pain.
- These symptoms describe the first stage of arsenicos is, as arsenic-induced ailments are known.In the second stage, white spots appear mixed up with the black (leucomelanosis), legs swell, and the palms and soles crack and bleed (hyperkeratosis).
- In the third stage the sores turns gangrenous, kidneys or liver may give way, and in around 20 years, cancers show up.
- Pinjra Begum died unusually young; she may have been drinking high levels of arsenic since childhood.
- One study in Taiwan found that drinking 500 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water led to skin cancer in one out of 10 individuals.-
- The major cause of death, however, is internal cancers, especially of the bladder, kidneys, liver and lung.
- Drinking water with high levels of arsenic can also lead to neurological and cardiovascular complications
- 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 posion
- 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
- Money is unused because of uncertainties in how to proceed.
- Everyone in targeted villages became aware of unknown problem after BRAC trained people to use field kits to test the waters for arsenic
- Compelling reasons exist for promoting use of surface water. It is plentiful and generally free of arsenic.
- Finding a permanent solution to arsenic will take several years.
- Current rate of testing could take several years to cover the entire nation.
Authors Main Point:
In this article the author is talking about how arsenic is in the water people from Bangladesh drink from and how it is dangerous. Arsenic in drinking water could poison 50 million people worldwide. 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 cancer. Drinking water with high levels of arsenic can also lead to neurological and cardiovascular complications. To find a permanent solution to arsenic in drinking water will take many years. It will not only take time but also money and lots of it.
My Own Thoughts On The Topic:
This is killing many people and yet nothing is being done. I am now sacred to drink water. I think that scientists should put their focus on preventing toxic chemicals in the water supply. I don't think I could blame the people for neglecting that arsenic could have been in the water supply. I think that more people should know what is in the stuff they drink and know what it is doing to them. If more people know maybe something could be done about the arsenic in drinking water.