Groundwater arsenic contamination in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India

Nine districts in West Bengal, India, and 42 districts in Bangladesh have a rsenic levels in groundwater above the World Health Organization maximum pe rmissible limit of 50 mu g/L. The area and population of the 42 districts i n Bangladesh and the 9 districts in West Bengal are 92,106 km(2) and 79.9 m illion and 38,865 km(2) and 42.7 million, respectively. In our preliminary study, we have identified 985 arsenic-affected villages in 69 police statio ns/blocks of nine arsenic-affected districts in West Bengal. In Bangladesh, we have identified 492 affected villages in 141 police stations/blocks of 42 affected districts. To date, we have collected 10,991 water samples from 42 arsenic-affected districts in Bangladesh for analysis, 58,166 water sam ples from nine arsenic-affected districts in West Bengal. Of the water samp les that we analyzed, 59 and 34%, respectively, contained arsenic levels ab ove 50 mu g/L. Thousands of hair, nail, and urine samples From people livin g in arsenic-affected villages have been analyzed to date; Bangladesh and W est Bengal, 33 and 77% samples, on an average, contained arsenic above the normal/toxic level. We surveyed 27 of 42 districts in Bangladesh for arseni c patients; we identified patients with arsenical skin lesions in 25 distri cts. In West Bengal, we identified patients with lesions in seven of nine d istricts. We examined people from the affected villages at random for arsen ical dermatologic features (11,180 and 29,035 from Bangladesh and West Beng al, respectively); 24.47 and 15.02% of those examined, respectively, had sk in lesions. After 10 years of study in West Bengal and 5 in Bangladesh, we feel that we have seen only the tip of iceberg.