It started with spots dappled across people’s chests and backs. Unusual hard patches on the skin of their palms and soles of their feet. For some, a blackening of their toes. Doctors and researchers began noticing patients in Bangladesh presenting with these kinds of symptoms in the 1980s. It soon became clear what they were seeing: classic signs of arsenic poisoning.
In a tragic irony, the reason was eventually traced back to an otherwise hugely successful public-health program. In the 1970s, children in Bangladesh were dying in high numbers from diseases such as dysentery and cholera after drinking dirty water from rivers, lakes and streams. In response, Bangladesh’s government, along with aid agencies spearheaded by UNICEF, launched a huge effort to tap into cleaner water underground.
Over the next two decades [millions of tube wells](https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w25729/w25729.pdf) — narrow pipes drilled to relatively shallow depths — were sunk into the earth. “Within one generation (they) changed the drinking water behavior of an entire population,” said Seth Frisbie, a chemist and professor emeritus at Norwich University, who has spent decades researching arsenic contamination.
The numbers of children dying dropped significantly. Yet by the 1990s it had become clear the project had failed to account for one enormous and deadly problem: much of the groundwater contained sky-high levels of arsenic, a known carcinogen linked to a slew of other negative health impacts.
Health experts have called it the “[worst mass poisoning](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1257621/)” of a population in history — with tens of millions affected. While the government, UNICEF and other aid agencies have scrambled to tackle the contamination, the poisonous impacts are still widespread. An estimated [43,000 people die](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2773049222000046) each year from arsenic-related diseases in Bangladesh, according to one study.
Now, in a cruel twist, the situation could be set to worsen. New evidence suggests the impacts of the human-caused climate crisis — including flooding and sea level rise — are changing the water chemistry underground and pushing up arsenic levels even further. The problem stretches far beyond Bangladesh.
We’ve all pretty much schitt our nest, all gonna die, so I’m thinking in triage mode here: Arsenic vs lead; I think I’d rather die slow than die dumb.
Just sayin’…
2 comments
It started with spots dappled across people’s chests and backs. Unusual hard patches on the skin of their palms and soles of their feet. For some, a blackening of their toes. Doctors and researchers began noticing patients in Bangladesh presenting with these kinds of symptoms in the 1980s. It soon became clear what they were seeing: classic signs of arsenic poisoning.
In a tragic irony, the reason was eventually traced back to an otherwise hugely successful public-health program. In the 1970s, children in Bangladesh were dying in high numbers from diseases such as dysentery and cholera after drinking dirty water from rivers, lakes and streams. In response, Bangladesh’s government, along with aid agencies spearheaded by UNICEF, launched a huge effort to tap into cleaner water underground.
Over the next two decades [millions of tube wells](https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w25729/w25729.pdf) — narrow pipes drilled to relatively shallow depths — were sunk into the earth. “Within one generation (they) changed the drinking water behavior of an entire population,” said Seth Frisbie, a chemist and professor emeritus at Norwich University, who has spent decades researching arsenic contamination.
The numbers of children dying dropped significantly. Yet by the 1990s it had become clear the project had failed to account for one enormous and deadly problem: much of the groundwater contained sky-high levels of arsenic, a known carcinogen linked to a slew of other negative health impacts.
Health experts have called it the “[worst mass poisoning](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1257621/)” of a population in history — with tens of millions affected. While the government, UNICEF and other aid agencies have scrambled to tackle the contamination, the poisonous impacts are still widespread. An estimated [43,000 people die](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2773049222000046) each year from arsenic-related diseases in Bangladesh, according to one study.
Now, in a cruel twist, the situation could be set to worsen. New evidence suggests the impacts of the human-caused climate crisis — including flooding and sea level rise — are changing the water chemistry underground and pushing up arsenic levels even further. The problem stretches far beyond Bangladesh.
*Please share your thoughts about* [*this story*](https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/21/climate/arsenic-contaminated-water-bangladesh-climate-intl/index.html) *in the comments.*
We’ve all pretty much schitt our nest, all gonna die, so I’m thinking in triage mode here: Arsenic vs lead; I think I’d rather die slow than die dumb.
Just sayin’…