{"id":29280,"date":"2018-10-24T17:53:06","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T12:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=29280"},"modified":"2018-10-24T17:53:06","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T12:23:06","slug":"death-by-slow-poisoning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/death-by-slow-poisoning\/","title":{"rendered":"Death by slow poisoning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/health\/death-by-slow-poisoning\/article23930645.ece\"><b>Death by slow poisoning<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">News:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1.An estimated 10 million people in nine districts of West Bengal drink arsenic-laden groundwater. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Important Facts:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2.Today, around 10 million people in nine districts in West Bengal and 40 million in Bangladesh drink arsenic laden ground water.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3.The source of the arsenic contamination can be traced back to the following geological processes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Around 18,000 and 6,000 years ago, small Himalayan rock particles, coated with iron oxide, entered the Ganga river delta.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the way, these particles absorbed the tiny amounts of arsenic in the river water, like a sponge soaking liquid.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These particles were then deposited in layers of sediment, over thousands of years, in what is now West Bengal and Bangladesh.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Decaying organic matter or peat acted on these rocks. These organic matter used up the oxygen from the iron oxide present in the rocks for their own metabolism. In the process, <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Around 18,000 and 6,000 years ago, small Himalayan rock particles, coated with iron oxide, entered the Ganga river delta.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the way, these particles absorbed the tiny amounts of arsenic in the river water, like a sponge soaking liquid.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These particles were then deposited in layers of sediment, over thousands of years, in what is now West Bengal and Bangladesh.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Decaying organic matter or peat acted on these rocks. These organic matter used up the oxygen from the iron oxide present in the rocks for their own metabolism. In the process, iron and arsenic was set free.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This increased the concentration of both iron and arsenic in the groundwater.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1970\u2019s tube wells were dug out due to increased surface water contamination.This unleashed the underground arsenic.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4.Shallow tube wells, less than 150 meters deep, are the worst affected, because they contain arsenic-rich sediments from the Holocene era, when the arsenic arrived in the delta.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5.Can Deep aquifers be the solutions?<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deep aquifers, more than 150 meters underground, are unaffected because they tap into the older Pleistocene sediments. Bangladesh has been using deep tubewells for accessing safe water.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But even deep aquifers can become contaminated with the overuse of groundwater as it disturbs the clay separating the deep and shallow aquifers.For example, North 24 Parganas, deep tube wells which were uncontaminated initially saw arsenic levels rise in about five years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus the initial strategy of the government of digging deeper wells to replace the shallow ones was not feasible.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6.Effect on people:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the Skin:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0(i)The most visible symptom in early years is a classic blotchy pattern on the skin, a<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0condition called raindrop pigmentation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(ii)Next they develop hyperkeratosis \u2014 dark crusts on their palms and soles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(iii)Skin can turn cancerous. E.g., Bowen\u2019s Carcinoma.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can also destroy the kidneys and liver tissue, cause conjunctivitis and affect the lungs causing arsenicosis.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a silent killer, it can take years for keratosis to show in adults and even longer in children.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arsenic contaminated children have lower IQ.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social stigma attached to it affects the livelihood of the person.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7.This problem of arsenic contamination has been compared with the Chernobyl disaster.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">8.Steps taken by the Government and NGOs and reasons for its failure:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A water treatment plant was installed in Madhusudhankati by thefarmer\u2019s cooperative society with the help of Sulabh International.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Reason for failure: despite the availability of safe water, people drank contaminated <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">water.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government appointed committees in 1983,1988,1992 and 1993 to look into the problem of arsenic contamination but no proper follow up action was taken.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By 2007, the government tested over 1 lakh wells for contamination.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reason for failure: The contaminated wells were not marked making the whole\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">exercise futile. <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UNICEF and other NGOs focus was on public outreach. They held door-to-door campaigns, street plays, distributed flyers.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 Reason for failure: It could not cover enough areas to make a significant change.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The campaign needed dedicated communication experts which the Government did not\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">have. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A household filter was developed by SOES with two components:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 \u00a0 (i)A tablet made of iron salt, an oxidizer and activated charcoal. The tablet reacts with\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">arsenic and turns it into a filtrable floc.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 \u00a0 (ii)A fly ash filter to filter the floc.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Reason for failure: <\/span>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People did not know how to use them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People would use multiple tablets instead of just one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tablets would be exposed to sunlight and dried out by mistake<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Toxic arsenic sludge was disposed of unsafely releasing back into the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treatment plants have been installed in many locations:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reasons for failure: Arsenic removal technologies are still emerging.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plants are operating at low efficiencies because of maintenance issues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">9.Steps to be taken:\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Challenges:<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0(i)Technical challenges in laying such long pipelines.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(ii)Total estimated cost is Rs 1 lakh crore.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.Efforts currently underway<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Short term strategy: Provide Hooghly water to half the contaminated villages and community arsenic treatment plants for the other half. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Commissioning 170 community arsenic treatment plants.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Death by slow poisoning News: 1.An estimated 10 million people in nine districts of West Bengal drink arsenic-laden groundwater. Important Facts: 2.Today, around 10 million people in nine districts in West Bengal and 40 million in Bangladesh drink arsenic laden ground water. 3.The source of the arsenic contamination can be traced back to the following&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/death-by-slow-poisoning\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Death by slow poisoning<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704822153},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}