Article Courtesy: Delft University of Technology
Image courtesy: Arsenic Mitigation: The way forward by Dr. Ashok Ghosh, A N College, Patna
It took many years to know that arsenic is a toxic for human being and animals. Nevertheless, it has been used for several thousand years. Arsenic in drinking water at 60 mg/l or more will kill immediately. The limit of 0.01 mg/l was set primarily to be sure to avoid these acute toxic effects. As mentioned earlier, the permissible limit is set by the WHO at 0.01 mg/l. Some countries which suffer from arsenicosis raised their limit to 0,05mg/l. Bangladesh is one of the country that raised the limit, because they have no itigations options for arsenic.
Long term exposure to high levels of arsenic in drinking water may cause dermatological consequences, like black spots, thickening and discoloration of the skin, numbness in the hands and feet, black foot diseases, keratosis, but also mental diseases like depression, decreasing of production of blood cells, abnormal heart rhythm and digestive diseases. In addition, liver, kidney, lung and skin cancer may also be found sooner or later, depends on how long someone is exposed to arsenic. Generally it takes 20 to 30 years to have cancer, with a concentration of 500 ppb (parts per billion) (Abernathy, Liu, & Longfellow, 1999).
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