Regional variation of arsenic concentration in drinking water: A cross-sectional study in rural Bangladesh

摘要

Many of the households in rural Bangladesh use shallow tubewells for drinking water which are mostly affected by high levels of arsenic. Women and children living in such households are at risk to high exposure to arsenic being associated with reproductive and developmental consequences. As part of the cross-sectional social survey across the country we visited 960 randomly selected households to check the permissible safe drinking water limits set by the WHO and Bangladesh government. We tested arsenic on the spot using Econo-Quick arsenic test kit and a part of the water samples were verified in the laboratory. We found that 68% and 77% of household members in Dhaka division exposed to higher levels of arsenic exceeded both WHO and Bangladesh standards, respectively. In some cases (e.g., Sonargaon), people used arsenic-affected drinking water sources even though they knew that the water was contaminated and damaging to health.