WHO Warns of Mass Arsenic Poisoning Risk in Bangladesh: Between 33 and 77 Million People Affected

The Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) - Bangladesh faces the "largest mass poisoning of a population in history" because of arsenic contamination of its drinking water supplies, a study by the World Health Organization said Friday.

The research by Allan H. Smith, professor of epidemiology at the University of California at Berkeley, said that between 33 and 77 million of Bangladesh's 125 million people were at risk.

Smith predicted a big increase over the coming years in the number of cases of disease caused by arsenic - ranging from skin lesions to cancers of the bladder, kidney, lung and skin and cardiovascular problems.

"Bangladesh is grappling with the largest mass poisoning of a population in history because groundwater used for drinking has been contaminated with naturally occurring inorganic arsenic," said the study, published in WHO's monthly bulletin.

"The scale of this environmental disaster is greater than any seen before," wrote Smith. "It is beyond the accidents at Bhopal, India, in 1984 and Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986."

The study was based on visits to Bangladesh by Smith in 1997 and 1998 and adds to the warnings by the U.N. Children's Fund, the U.S. government and other agencies that Bangladesh is facing huge health risks because of the arsenic.

The high level of arsenic in ground water occurs naturally, but has become a widespread danger in the past three decades, when the Bangladesh government has dug 5 million wells to provide drinking water and save millions of people from cholera, diarrhea and other waterborne diseases.

Bangladesh first reported the problem in 1993. The World Bank and UNICEF have provided Bangladesh more than $34 million to help build alternative sources of drinking water such as storage of rain water or treatment of pond water.

Smith's study urged the government to do more to provide arsenic-free water, educate communities about the risks and treat and monitor patients.

--- On the Net:

World Health Organization http://www.who.int http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGIFNBBZVCC.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), September 08, 2000