Great Study, Russell. Thank you :o) I will be traveling to Bangladesh. I better carry some bottled water with = me :-) ----- Original Message ----- = From: "Russell McMahon" To: "PIC List" Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 8:44 PM Subject: Re: [EE]:: Remedy for Arsenic or Selenium poisoning The background to what they are doing in Bangladesh and West Bengal and why ... http://www.bangladesh-selenium.org/documents/La%20Porte%20Phase%20I= II%20clinical%20trial.pdf __________________ Background: The Bangladesh Arsenic Crisis Beginning in 1972, the Governments of Bangladesh and India used UNICEF financing to drill 900,000 tubewells at 20-60m depth throughout the Bengal basin to: a) provide villagers with drinking water free from cholera, typhoid, and dysentery; and b) provide reliable, year-round irrigation water for intensive rice cultivation, as an alternative to the annual but unreliable monsoon rains. Since then, government and private initiatives have introduced a total of 8 to 12 million more tubewells in Bangladesh, which now provide 95% of the drinking water for 97% of the population.284 In the 1980s, it was discovered that the alluvial sediments of the Ganges delta are highly contaminated by arsenic, particularly in the shallow aquifers.3 Recent work has demonstrated that arsenic originates from ferrous oxides in the Holocene-era aquifers tapped by the tubewells. Carbon deposits from ancient mangrove swamps provide reducing conditions that cause the release of arsenic that would otherwise remain trapped in the ferrous oxide crystals. Arsenicosis was first observed in West Bengal in 1983 by dermatologist Dr. KC Saha.213 Later, in 1987, it was found in border-crossing Bangladeshi subjects.214 During the 1980s, Kolkotta-based researchers led by Dr. D. Chakraborti discovered 3,000 villages in West Bengal contaminated about 50 =B5g/L,37 prompting the 1998-99 British Geological Survey-Bangladeshi government survey of 3,534 wells throughout Bangladesh. The BGS survey found wide-spread and severe arsenic contamination, (Figure 1).28 with estimates that 8.6% of the population drinks at 50-100=B5g/L As, 10.9% at 100-300=B5g/L As, 4.5% at 300-600=B5g/L As, and 0.83% at > 600=B5g/L As154 The revised WHO and EPA drinking water limits are at 10 =B5g/L, and toxicity is readily apparent above 300 =B5g/L. In one Bangladeshi district alone, an academic group found that 358 out of 375 sampled tubewells (95.5%) were contaminated by As > 50=B5g/L, with 126 tubwells (33.6%) showing severe contamination by As > 300 ug/l -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist = -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist