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media type="youtube" key="clwHIKIR-aU" height="229" width="288" align="right" The Issue in General Everyone drinks water. Humans drink water every day. They also use water to cook, bathe, wash their clothes and grow their food. These simple activities are rarely considered dangerous or deadly. But for many people around the world the groundwater they use every day is contaminated with toxins that can cause disease and even death. One carcinogen that is causing harmful effects is arsenic. Arsenic is a metal substance found in rock that can erode naturally into the water supply. However, more often arsenic is a by-product of industry and manufacturing. Businesses that dye clothes, tan leather, preserve wood, make pesticides and develop a specific kind of glass all create arsenic as a waste product. If this waste is disposed into rivers or lakes or just dumped onto the ground, it infects the groundwater that humans use in that area. After years of exposure arsenic can cause skin discoloration, nausea, vomiting, numbness in hands or feet, birth defects, heart disease and skin, lung and bladder cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that safe drinking water can have up to 0.01 parts per million of arsenic, but countries over that limit must take steps to purify the water and make it safer. In 2006 over 20 locations around the globe were identified as having severe arsenic contamination and in a 2007 study it was found that worldwide over 137 million people in over 70 countries, including the USA, could be affected.


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Currently, the worst case on earth is in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a country of over 120 million people in Asia near India. It has the highest population density in the world with 755 people per square kilometer. It is a very poor country where most of the people rely on farming for their existence. Water is consumed without any treatment and the people dig tubewells to access the groundwater. In Bangladesh there are over 4 million tubewells and in recent years it has been discovered that over 63% have unacceptable levels of arsenic and hundreds of thousands of people are suffering the long-term effects of arsenic exposure. The WHO has described the situation as “the largest poisoning of a population in history.” In one ten year study, 89% of human biological samples showed evidence of arsenic poisoning and most areas of the country have well over the WHO’s limit of 0.01 parts per million. Some areas have 1.0-2.0 parts per million, which is over 100 times the acceptable limit. The Bangladeshi government has called the situation, “a national disaster.” Unfortunately, the exact causes of this disaster are not completely known. Arsenic contamination can be caused naturally or through industrial waste. Unfortunately, Bangladesh has high concentrations of both problems. The population cannot drink surface water in rivers and ponds because it is so contaminated with bacteria and is unhealthy. Therefore tubewells need to be drilled into the earth’s surface in order to get to the water underground. However, rock below the surface in Bangladesh has natural high concentrations of arsenic. When tubewells are drilled arsenic is released into the groundwater. In addition, huge tanning factories are the country’s main industry and for decades the manufacturing plants have dumped arsenic polluted waste into rivers and ponds which seeps beneath the surface infecting the drinking water. Scientists have also discovered that the run-off from pesticides in this primarily agricultural nation also affects the water people use. Unfortunately many studies have also shown that the food grown in contaminated water then also has high levels of arsenic. So the problem expands from infected water to infected food as well. International agencies have recommended that the government of Bangladesh, as well as international governments, investigate the direct causes of the arsenic contamination. Other solutions include creating guidelines for industrial waste disposal, a national sewage disposal program should be implemented and a water distribution system for the country should be instituted with a government regulated water quality control program. But more importantly the people of Bangladesh need to be informed and educated about the problem. Most of the population does not know or understand the issues so they do not avoid using the water. By creating community awareness about water contamination and providing alternative water sources much of the problem can be alleviated. By educating farmers that the food they grow can be contaminated also

I think the example of Bangladesh is interesting because it shows both how the environment (arsenic rich rock) can affect humans AND how humans (tanning factory waste) can affect the environment (groundwater). It illustrates the circle of interaction perfectly. We need to understand the affects of our actions on the environment because we still rely on the earth for our survival. The cost saved by dumping toxic waste into rivers actually creates so much more costs down the road in clean-up, population health issues and reduction in food supply. One of the most disturbing aspects of this problem to me is that the people are uneducated in Bangladesh and do not understand the problem. It is an example of how a poor, illiterate population is affected by their lack of knowledge. The people of Bangladesh are not educated enough to ask the hard questions of their government or their business. It has taken international organizations to recognize and highlight the problem. It has taken the hard questions from scientists in other countries for the government in Bangladesh to finally realize the problem and begin to act on it. For me, this is the root of the problem. Education and knowledge are power and the Bangladeshi people have neither. I only hope the pressure from international organizations will begin to have an effect and the poisoning of a population will come to an end.