| Public Health Strategies for Western Bangladesh That Address Arsenic, Manganese, Uranium, and Other Toxic Elements in Drinking Water Seth H. Frisbie,1,2 Erika J. Mitchell,1 Lawrence J. Mastera,3 Donald M. Maynard,1 Ahmad Zaki Yusuf,4 Mohammad Yusuf Siddiq,4 Richard Ortega,5 Richard K. Dunn,3 David S. Westerman,3 Thomas Bacquart,5 and Bibudhendra Sarkar6 1Better Life Laboratories, Inc., East Calais, Vermont, USA; 2Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and 3Department of Geology and Environmental Science, Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont, USA; 4Bangladesh Association for Needy Peoples Improvement, Chorhash, Kushtia, Bangladesh; 5Laboratoire de Chimie Nucléaire Analytique et Bioenvironnementale, Université de Bordeaux 1, Gradignan, France; 6Department of Molecular Structure and Function, Research Institute of the Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Abstract
Background: More than 60,000,000 Bangladeshis are drinking water with unsafe concentrations of one or more elements. Objectives: Our aims in this study were to evaluate and improve the drinking water testing and treatment plans for western Bangladesh. Methods: We 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. Results: The 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. Conclusions: These 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. Key words: arsenic, Bangladesh, chronic arsenic poisoning, drinking water, manganese, uranium. Environ Health Perspect 117:410–416 (2009) . doi:10.1289/ehp.11886 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 7 October 2008]
Address correspondence to B. Sarkar, Department of Molecular Structure and Function, Research Institute of the Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, 555 University Ave., Toronto, ON M5G 1X8 Canada. Telephone: (416) 813-5921. Fax: (416) 813-5379. E-mail: bsarkar@sickkids.ca This study was supported by Better Life Laboratories, Norwich University, the Bangladesh Association for Needy Peoples Improvement, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at the Université de Bordeaux 1, and the Hospital for Sick Children. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 2 July 2008 ; accepted 7 October 2008.
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