Public Health Strategies for Western Bangladesh That Address Arsenic, Manganese, Uranium, and Other Toxic Elements in Drinking Water

Abstract

BackgroundMore than 60,000,000 Bangladeshis are drinking water with unsafe concentrations of one or more elements.ObjectivesOur aims in this study were to evaluate and improve the drinking water testing and treatment plans for western Bangladesh.MethodsWe sampled groundwater from four neighborhoods in western Bangladesh to determine the distributions of arsenic, boron, barium, chromium, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, lead, antimony, selenium, uranium, and zinc, and to determine pH.ResultsThe percentages of tube wells that had concentrations exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) health-based drinking water guidelines were 78% for Mn, 48% for U, 33% for As, 1% for Pb, 1% for Ni, and 1% for Cr. Individual tube wells often had unsafe concentrations of both Mn and As or both Mn and U. They seldom had unsafe concentrations of both As and U.ConclusionsThese results suggest that the ongoing program of identifying safe drinking water supplies by testing every tube well for As only will not ensure safe concentrations of Mn, U, Pb, Ni, Cr, and possibly other elements. To maximize efficiency, drinking water testing in Bangladesh should be completed in three steps: 1) all tube wells must be sampled and tested for As; 2) if a sample meets the WHO guideline for As, then it should be retested for Mn and U; 3) if a sample meets the WHO guidelines for As, Mn, and U, then it should be retested for B, Ba, Cr, Mo, Ni, and Pb. All safe tube wells should be considered for use as public drinking water supplies.

Concentrations of arsenic and other elements in groundwater of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India: Potential cancer risk

“…It appears that the mean As concentration in Noakhali district was somewhat higher than that in Jalangi and Domkal, somewhat lower than in Baruipur and much higher than in Dasdia Nonaghata and Deganga. The mean As concentration in Noakhali was also much higher than that found in two previous studies conducted from Bangladesh (BGS-DPHE, 2001;Frisbie et al, 2009). The mean As concentration of Noakhali was somewhat lower than that of Vinh Tru and Hao Hau areas (depth range 16-40 m), Vietnam (Nguyen et al, 2009), and comparatively higher than in some areas of Cambodia and Vietnam (depth range 9-65 m) Buschmann et al, 2007;Nguyen et al, 2009).…”

“…Less attention has been paid to other elements present in groundwater from these regions, especially in the Bengal delta plain. A few articles have addressed the concentrations of As and other toxic elements in groundwater from several countries in Southeast Asia, mainly from Cambodia and Vietnam, based on limited numbers of samples (Agusa et al, 2006;Buschmann et al, 2007Buschmann et al, ,2008Frisbie et al, 2002Frisbie et al, ,2009Islam et al, 2000;Luu et al, 2009;Nguyen et al, 2009;Roychowdhury et al, 2003;Shinkai et al, 2007;Winkel et al, 2008). Besides As, other elements such as Mn, Ba, B, Se, U, Ni, Pb, Cd, Fe, and Cr in groundwater exceeded the WHO drinking water guideline values.…”

“…Besides As, other elements such as Mn, Ba, B, Se, U, Ni, Pb, Cd, Fe, and Cr in groundwater exceeded the WHO drinking water guideline values. Only a few articles reported the presence of other elements in the groundwater of Bangladesh and West Bengal (Frisbie et al, 2002(Frisbie et al, , 2009Islam et al, 2000;Ohno et al, 2005;Roychowdhury et al, 2003;Nath et al, 2008Nath et al, ,2011. In 2009, UNICEF conducted analysis of groundwater in Bangladesh for metals and metalloids as a part of national drinking water quality survey and reported that 65% of the water samples met the previous WHO guideline value for Mn (400 lg/L) (UNICEF, 2011).…”

“…Unfortunately, this approach has been largely overshadowed in the past few years by the As calamity in the Bengal delta plain. Ongoing activities of classifying safe drinking water sources by testing tubewells for As only will not assure safe levels of Mn, U, Pb, Ni, Cr, and probably other elements (Frisbie et al, 2009). Although As is of major concern in the Bengal deltaic plain, policy makers are not yet cognizant of the potential health hazards of the presence of other trace elements in groundwater.…”

Associations of Plasma Selenium with Arsenic and Genomic Methylation of Leukocyte DNA in Bangladesh

“…Unlike As, where contaminated drinking water is the predominant route of high exposure, most Se in Bangladesh is obtained from the diet; the concentrations of Se in drinking water in Bangladesh are well below the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline of 10 µg/L (Frisbie et al 2009). Dietary Se, primarily in the form of seleno methionine, under goes hepatic trans sulfuration, generating free seleno cysteine and metabolically active Se.…”