Arsenic in Foodchain and Community Health Risk: A Study in Gangetic West Bengal
| Autor: | Alok Chandra Samal, Piyal Bhattacharya, Jayjit Majumdar, Satabdi Banerjee, Anirban Biswas, Subhas Chandra Santra |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: |
inorganic chemicals
Irrigation health risk integumentary system Arsenic toxicity business.industry food and beverages chemistry.chemical_element Amaranth Biology foodchain Arsenic Toxicology Arsenic contamination of groundwater Crop chemistry.chemical_compound chemistry Gastrointestinal disorder Agriculture Gangetic West Bengal Botany General Earth and Planetary Sciences business General Environmental Science |
| Zdroj: | Procedia Environmental Sciences. 18:2-13 |
| ISSN: | 1878-0296 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.proenv.2013.04.002 |
| Popis: | Arsenic, a potent carcinogen, can cause malignant arsenical skin lesions may be Bowen's disease, basal cell carcinoma, or squamous cell carcinoma. Apart from carcinoma and melanoma, chronic arsenic exposure can cause respiratory disease, gastrointestinal disorder, liver malfunction, nervous system disorder, haematological diseases like anaemia, leucopaenia and thrombocytopaenia, diabetes and severe cardiovascular malfunction. Vegetables and crops grown in arsenic contaminated groundwater can add many fold daily arsenic intake through human food apart from drinking water. The main economy of highly arsenic affected areas of West Bengal depends on agriculture, so uncontrolled uplifting of groundwater for irrigation is being practised over past few decades. Our research group studied on various aspects of arsenic entry into human foodchain and its health effects. By studying arsenic accumulation in different vegetables, we found that tuberous vegetables accumulated higher amount of arsenic than leafy vegetables and leafy vegetables followed by fruity vegetable. The highest arsenic accumulation was observed in potato, brinjal, arum, amaranth, radish, lady's finger, cauliflower whereas lower level of arsenic accumulation was observed in beans, green chilli, tomato, bitter guard, lemon, turmeric. The major oil seed of this region is mustard and was found to accumulate arsenic in the range 0.339-0.373 mg/kg. In pulses group, pea showed the highest arsenic content of 1.30 mg/kg whereas moong (Mung bean) found the lowest value (0.314 mg/kg). Rice, the principal crop of this region, accumulated arsenic irrespective to its varieties. The arsenic accumulation was found to be more in Boro rice than in Aman, while high yielding rice varieties were found to accumulate more arsenic than local. From dietary study we found that a total daily intake of 560 μg and 393 μg of arsenic for adult and children respectively. The people having poor nutrition were found to be affected more from arsenic toxicity than the people having adequate nutrition. The present review represents the current scenario of arsenic contamination and suggests probable sustainable mitigation strategies to battle against the curse of arsenic contamination. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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