World Health Organization : Year 2000 ; World Health Organization, Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments, Water Sanitation and Health, Series 00.4: Towards an Assessment of the Socioeconomic Impact of Arsenic Poisoning in Bangladesh Prepared in Cooperation with the Department of Health in Sustainable Development

By Alistair Curry

Book Id: WPLBN0000182688
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 2.4 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	World Health Organization : Year 2000 ; World Health Organization, Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments, Water Sanitation and Health, Series 00.4: Towards an Assessment of the Socioeconomic Impact of Arsenic Poisoning in Bangladesh Prepared in Cooperation with the Department of Health in Sustainable Development
Author:	Alistair Curry
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Health., Public health, Wellness programs
Collections:	Medical Library Collection, World Health Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	World Health Organization


Citation APA MLA Chicago Curry, A. (n.d.). World Health Organization : Year 2000 ; World Health Organization, Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments, Water Sanitation and Health, Series 00.4. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
Medical Reference Publication

Excerpt
1. Introduction Access to a safe water supply is one of the most important determinants of health and socioeconomic development (Cvjetanovic 1986). This recognition of the importance of safe water supplies has led to an emphasis on the provision of appropriate facilities in developing countries. In the 1970s, it was realised that Bangladesh's population density and lack of access to adequate sanitation had led to severe microbiological contamination of surface water, resulting in high levels of morbidity and mortality. Bangladesh's government and population, supported by international agencies, have since then installed about 4 million tubewells' to tap better quality groundwater sources. This tube well initiative is said to have contributed significantly to the halving of infant mortality over a 36-year, from 1511000 in 1960 to 831000 in 1996. The under-five mortality rate also dropped from 2471000 to 1121000 in that period (UNICEF 1998). However, in 1993, drinking water samples from tubewells were found to contain high levels of arsenic. The area containing the worst arsenic concentrations stretches across the central section of Bangladesh from Chapai Nawabganj in the west to Brahrnanbaria in the east, although there are isolated areas affected in other regions, particularly the Greater Sylhet area in the north-east. The exact number of persons at risk from arsenic poisoning is not known with accuracy. The British Geological survey (1998) estimates the total population affected as 18.5-22.7 million based on the assumption that the population affected is proportional to the number of wells contaminated.

Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. The importance of safe water supply to the household . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Health effects of arsenic in drinking water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.1 Non-cancer health efSects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.2 Cancer health efSects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.3 Treatment of arsenicosis sufSerers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4 . Mitigation of arsenic in drinking water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4.1 Groundwater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4.2 Sulfacewater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.2.1 Sulface water treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.2.2 Rainwater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4.3 Technologychoice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 5 . Arsenicosis and economic status: the poor suffer most . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 5.1 The relationship between household income and prevalence of arsenicosis 12 5.2 Explanations for the role of socioeconomic status in arsenic poisening ....... 13 6 . The socioeconomic impact of arsenic poisening: coping and steps towards modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 6.1 Coping with the impact of arsenicpoisening: introductory elements . . . . . . . . . . 15 6.2 The policy question: the arsenic poisoning and its socioeconomic impact . . . . . . 16 7 . A sub-model of the epidemiology of arsenicosis at village level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 7.1 Epidemiological model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 7.2 Assignment of prevalence and incidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 7.3 Natural history of arsenicosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 7.4 Model results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 8 . Sub-model of arsenicosis and its socioeconomic impact on village households 21 8.1 Socioeconomic household survey at TO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 8.2 Coping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 8.3 Modeling the impact of mitigation methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24