Arsenic in Water a Risk to 140 Million People
Date: 30-Aug-07
Country: UK
Author: Michael Kahn
The problem is bigger than scientists had thought and
affects nearly 140 million people in more than 70 countries,
according to new research presented at the annual Royal
Geographical Society meeting in London.
Arsenic can cause lung disease and cancers, even long after
people stop drinking contaminated water, said Peter Ravenscroft,
a researcher at the University of Cambridge.
"What is new is the extent of arsenic pollution is much
bigger than people realised," Ravenscroft said in a telephone
interview.
"There is a very important connection between arsenic in
water and arsenic in food, especially where people grow
irrigated corps."
World Health Organisation guidelines set a safe limit of 10
parts per billion of arsenic in water supplies but tens of
millions of people in the world drink unsafe water above that
level, researchers said.
At present, Bangladesh is the worst-affected country. There,
hundreds of thousands or people are likely to die from arsenic
poisoning, the researchers said.
Arsenic has also been found in the water in developed
countries and industrial activities such as mining can also lead
to contamination.
Rising awareness has led to increased testing that has
revealed more widespread arsenic in drinking water but other
researchers said even more must be done to address the problem.
"Most countries have some water sources with dangerous
levels of arsenic, but only now are we beginning to recognise
the magnitude of the problem," Allan Smith, a researcher at the
University of California, Berkeley and adviser to the WHO on
arsenic, said in a statement.
