ARSENIC

POLLUTION

CONTENTS.
WHAT IS ARSENIC?
WHY ARSENIC IS RELATED WITH POLLUTION?
SOURCES OF ARSENIC POLLUTION IN GROUNDWATER
TOXIC EFFECTS TO HUMAN HEALTH
ARSENIC INFECTION
ARSENIC CONTAMINATION IN GROUND WATER OF
WEST BENGAL
SOME RECENT FACTS
EPAS REGULATIONS FOR ARSENIC.
MITIGATION
REFERENCES

WHAT IS ARSENIC?

Arsenic is widely dispersed element in the

earths crust and exists at an average
concentration of approximately 5mg/kg.
Arsenic is a ubiquitous element and widely
distributed in air, water, soil, rocks, plants and
animals in variable proportions.
it is usually found combined with one or more
other elements such as oxygen, chlorineand
sulphur, with the highest mineral concentrations.
. Major arsenic containing minerals are
arsenopyrites (FeAsS), realgar (As 4S4), orpiment
and arsenic trisulfide (As2S3).

WHY ARSENIC IS RELATED

WITH POLLUTION?
As arsenic found in the earth crust which
was present from millions of years ago.
Due to unhealthy human practices such as
geothermal power generation, chemicals
using in agriculture etc.
These activities disbalance ecosystem which
tends arsenic to contaminate groundwater
Which polluted the groundwater , surface
water and soil to. hence water does not
remain suitable for drinking.

SOURCES OF ARSENIC
POLLUTION IN GROUND WATER

The main process of arsenic contamination is explained in

two main processes, namely oxidation of arsenic pyrites
or ferrous hydroxides and oxy-hydroxide reduction.
Oxidation of Arsenic Pyrites or Ferrous Hydroxides-:
When they oxidized and arsenic is released from the
minerals. Some of them are absorbed onto iron
hydroxide.
But when water table is recharged and the arsenic
adsorbed onto iron hydroxide returns to the reduced
environment under the water table and mixes with water
and caused the poisoning of water.
According to this hypothesis, the origin of arsenic rich
groundwater is man-made. Like weathering, erosion,
sedimentation, use of irrigation and fertilizers.

Oxy-hydroxide Reduction:
The origin of arsenic rich groundwater is due to
a natural process, and it seems that the arsenic
in groundwater has been present for thousands
of years without being flushed from the delta.
Arsenic is assumed to be present in alluvial
sediments with high concentrations in sand
grains as a coating of iron hydroxide.
The sediments were deposited in valleys eroded
in the delta when the stream base level was
lowered due to the drop in sea level during the
last glacial advance.
The organic matter deposited with the
sediments reduces the arsenic bearing iron
hydroxide and releass arsenic into
groundwater.

TOXIC EFFECTS TO HUMAN

HEALTH

Arsenic is toxic substance to human health and toxicity depends

on the amount of arsenic intake, which is classified into acute,
sub-acute and chronic toxicity respectively.
It is a silent killer.
It is 4 times as poisonous as mercury and its lethal dose (LD) for
human is 125 milligram.
Arsenic poisoning takes between 8 and 14 years to impact on
health, depending on the amount of arsenic ingested, nutritional
status, and immune response of the individual.
Most of the ingested arsenic is excreted from the body through
urine, stool, skin, hair, nail and breath.
In excessive intake, some amount of arsenic is accumulated in
tissues and inhibits cellular enzyme activities.
Chronic arsenic ingestion from drinking water is known to cause
skin cancer.
Arsenic is associated with a number of non-neoplastic diseases,
including cardiac disease, cerebrovascular disease, pulmonary
disease, diabetes mellitus .
The most common disease found is Arsenicoses which very
common in individuals who are in contact of arsenic pollution..

SIGNS OF ARSENICOSES
SPOTS ON HANDS

ARSENIC INFECTION
Organ System

Problems

Skin

Symmetric hyperkeratosis of palms and soles,

melanosis or depigmentation, bowen's disease, basal
cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

Liver

Enlargement, Jaundice, cirrhosis, non-cirrhotic portal

hypertension

Nervous System

Peripheral neuropathy, hearing loss

Cardiovascular System

Acrocyanosis and Raynaud's Phenomenon

Hemopoietic System

Megalobastosis

Respiratory System

Lung Cancer

Endocrine System

Diabetes mellitus and goiter

ARSENIC CONTAMINATION IN GROUND WATER OF WEST BENGAL

Arsenic crisis in India dates back to as early as 1976 when a

preliminary survey on arsenic in dugwells, hand pumps and spring
water from Chandigarh and different villages of Punjab, Patiala,
Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in northern India was reported in
Lancet by Dr. D.V Dutta .
Arsenic poisoning in West Bengal was first diagnosed by a
dermatologist K.C. Saha of School of Tropical Medicine (STM),
Calcutta (Kolkata was previously known as Calcutta) to an
outdoor patient of village Ramnagar .
When many cases were diagnosed in very short time then
SOES(school of environment studies jadavpur university started
work in 1988 on arsenic contamination in West Bengal.
In 1988 when they commenced arsenic survey in West Bengal,
we knew about 22 affected (As > 50 g/L) villages in five districts
now according to our latest survey the numbr of affected villages
increased to 3417 in 111 blocks in eleven districts excluding
Kolkata .

FACTS OF THE STUDY

During last 19 years with every additional survey they

noticed an increasing number of contaminated
villages and more affected people.
In and around Kolkata beside the top clay layer,
another 20-30m thick clay layers occurs at around
150m depth.
It is followed by alternating sequence of sand and
clay layers down to a depth of about 300m.
In the delta and flood plains due to attenuation of
intervening clay layers, the group of aquifers at depth
gets interconnected at some places giving avenues
for polluted groundwater.
According to the latest available data, we analyzed
1,40,150 hand tubewell water samples for arsenic in
all 19 districts covering 241 of 341 total blocks from
West Bengal India.

OUT OF 1,40,150 SAMPLES ANALYSED-:

48.1% had arsenic above 10g/L (the WHO guide line

value)
23.8% above 50g/L (the Indian standard value).
3.3% of the analyzed tube wells had arsenic
concentrations above 300g/L (the concentration
predicting overt arsenical skin lesions (Rahman et al,
2001).
A total of 187 (0.13%) hand tube-wells were highly
contaminated (>1000 g/L).
Nine districts (Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, North-24Parganas, South-24-Parganas, Bardhaman, Howrah,
Hoogly and Kolkata), where more than 300 g/L arsenic
concentrations were found in tubewells are categorized
as severely affected. Out of 1,35,555 samples analyzed
from these districts 67,306 (49.7%) had arsenic
concentrations above 10g/L and 33,470 (24.7%) above
50 g/L.

SOME RECENT FACTS

Arsenic contamination, considered so far endemic to eastern part of

Uttar Pradesh bordering Bihar, has now taken into its fold a large
part of the stat.
With nearly 30 districts of the state in the grip of arsenic
contamination.
Arsenic toxicity in ground water of Uttar Pradesh', harmful
concentration of arsenic in ground water, exceeding the Bureau of
Indian Standards permissible limit (of 0.01 mg/litre), is spread
across 31 districts of the state.
Testing of water samples from all over UP was done at the Indian
Institute of Toxicology Research.
The 20 districts which figure in the severely toxic zones (above
0.05mg/litre), where arsenic presence has been found to be more
than five times of allowed limit, are Ballia, Lakhimpur-Kheri,
Bahraich, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur, Bareilly, Siddharthanagar, Basti,
Chandauli, Unnao, Moradabad, Sant Kabir Nagar, Sant Ravidas
Nagar, Gonda, Bijnor, Mirzapur, Shahjahanpur, Balrampur, Meerut,
and Rae Bareli.

OTHER COUNTIRES

The Ashanti region of central Ghana currently faces

this as a real risk.
Recent arsenic pollution event is that of Ron Phibun
town in southern Thailand, where arsenic-related
human health effects have been reported.
Sources of arsenic exposure include coal burning in
Slovakia, Turkey, and the Guizhou Province of China.
Use of arsenic as pesticides in Australia, New
Zealand, and the US.

EPAS REGULATIONS OF
ARSENIC CONTAMINATION

In 1974, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water

Act.
EPA set the health goals to lesser the risk which are
called maximum contamination level goals.(MCLG)
The MCLG for arsenic is zero.
EPA has set an enforceable regulation for arsenic,
called a maximum contaminant level (MCL), at 0.010
mg/L or 10 ppb.
The Arsenic and Clarifications to Compliance and New
Source Contaminants Monitoring Final Rule, the
regulation for arsenic, became effective in 2002.

MITIGATION

To screen of all tube well and population to

identify contaminated ones and level of
contamination.
Once the tube well is detected with higher
concentration of arsenic than national
standard, the tube is marked with red paint and
with green paint which is safe to drink.

The people who are able to bear the cost are

suggested to drill tube well in the deep aquifer
where water is arsenic free.
Most common techniques for removal of arsenic
from water are -:
Oxidation of As3+ to As5+ by addition of a
suitable oxidizing agent.
Coagulation and filtration.
Ion exchange and membrane filtration including
reverse osmosis.

REFERENCES
WEBSITES-:
WWW.TIMESOFINDIA.INDIATIMES.COM
WWW.WATER.EPA.GOV
WWW.SOESJU.ORG
PUBLICATIONS-:
Arsenic in Groundwater: Poisoning and Risk
Assessment - M. Manzurul Hassan, Peter J. Atkins
Arsenic Contamination in the World - Susan
Murcott.
Books-:
Air pollution and its control By S.C DUTTA

THANK
YOU
BY AYUSH GARG
(2015MAE003)