India, arsenic-contaminated water

Severe water problems are also faced in southeast Asia. For example, Bangladesh and adjacent parts of India suffer from arsenic contamination of groundwater. Specifically, arsenic poisoning of groundwater has affected more than 50% of the total area of Bangladesh. The gradual introduction of arsenic inyo the food chain is more than a possibility. Nitrate pollution is also a problem in these areas. 

Patel, K.S., Shrivas, K., Brandt, R. et al. (2005) Arsenic contamination in water, soil, sediment and rice of central India. Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 27(2), 131-45. 

Bhattacharya, P Chatterjee, D. and Jacks, G. (1997) Occurrence of arsenic-contaminated groundwater in alluvial aquifers from delta plains, eastern India options for safe drinking water supply. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 13(1), 79-92. 

Khan, A. A., 1995, Arsenic contamination in groundwater, its causes and mitigation a geological perspective in International Conference on Arsenic in Ground Water Cause, Effect and Remedy, Calcutta, India, p. 43. 

Millions of people in rural areas of Bangladesh are being slowly poisoned as they drink water contaminated with small but potentially fatal quantities of arsenic. Estimates by the World Bank claim that from 18 to 50 million people out of a total population of about 120 million in the country are at risk. Thousands are already showing symptoms of poisoning. Nineteen rural districts covering an area of 500 km near the border of Bangladesh and India have arsenic-contaminated wells. Of the... 

Bertsch PM, Hunter DB, Sutton SR, Bajt S, Rivers ML (1994) In situ chemical speciation of uranium in soils and sediments by micro X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Environ Sci Technol 28 980-984 Bertsch PM and Seaman JC (1999) Characterization of complex mineral assemblages Implications for contaminant transport and environmental remediation. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 96 3350-3357 Beyersmann D, Koester A, Buttner B, Flessel P (1984) Model reactions of chromium compounds with mammalian and bacterial cells. Toxicol Environ Chem 8 279-286 Bhattachaiya P, Chatterjee D, Jacks G (1997) Occurrence of arsenic contaminated groundwater in alluvial aquifers from Delta Plains, Eastern India Options for safe drinking water supply. Int Jour Water Resources Management 13 79-92... 

Similar arsenate-cleaning proteins are found in plants and animals, especially those chronically exposed to arsenic. In some cases, the periodic table can explain mysterious chemical effects. For example, Leishmania parasites are susceptible to treatments with the element antimony ( 51 Sb on the table). But in certain areas of India, such treatments don t work. Some scientists think they know why, with some experiments in mice to back them up antimony is right below arsenic on the periodic table and the two are therefore chemically similar. In those areas of India, arsenic frequently contaminates drinking water, and the people who live there have upgraded their internal arsenate-cleaning processes. Because antimony is so chemically similar to arsenic, the two are swept up by the same processes, throwing out the antimony that would otherwise destroy Leishmania. The law of unintended consequences extends to chemistry and can be understood with a glance at the periodic table s colunms. 

Arsenic is present at high levels in some soils and contamination of drinking water with arsenic is a major problem is some areas of the world. In West Bengal, India, millions of people drink contaminated well water. As a result hundreds of thousands have developed debilitating nodular keratoses on their feet.1 1" The problem is made worse by the increasing... 

Occasionally, the extraction of arsenic forms can be conducted using demineralized water, but only in cases involving the release of stable compounds in solutions of varying pH. It has been employed, for example, in comparative analysis of the hair of 1000-year-old mummies recovered from the Atacama Desert in Chile, and in analyses of hair collected from contemporary residents of India inhabiting areas contaminated with arsenic [92]. Similar contents of dimethylarsinic acid [DMA(V)] and monomethylarsonic acid [MMA(V)] were found in both materials under study. 

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