The world is facing arsenic poisoning

About 140 million people, mainly in developing countries, are suffering from arsenic poisoning in drinking water.

On August 30, BBC said, at the annual meeting of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in the capital London - England, scientists warned arsenic poisoning would be one The causes for the number of cancer sufferers increase in the future.

South and East Asia will account for more than half of all cases of arsenic cancer. The health of people living in this area will be threatened because they may consume a large amount of cereals, especially rice, grown in arsenic-contaminated areas.

Staff of Chemistry - Spectrum Analysis Department (Institute of Geology, Hanoi) is examining water samples for customers.This is also the place to study and manufacture rapid test kit for arsenic-contaminated water (Photo: M. Son / VNN)

"Arsenic poisoning is a global problem. It is present in 70 countries and may be more," said Peter Ravenscroft, a geographer at Cambridge University. He added that, if European and North American domestic water standards were to be applied, it would be easy to see that about 140 million people worldwide are in alarming state.

Arsenic can lead to the risk of many cancers, including lung tumors, bladder cancer, skin cancer . According to scientists, in the long run, every 10 people use water with jelly credit, there will be one death. Compared to any kind of environmental pollution, arsenic pollution actually leads to the highest mortality rate.

In the 1980s, arsenic-contaminated water began to become a serious health threat, with documents from poisoned communities in Bangladesh and West Bengal - India.

Later, many groups of arsenic poisoning were found in other Asian countries such as China, Cambodia, Vietnam, South America and Africa. Although less affected in North America and Europe. However, from many wells in England, arsenic was also discovered.

In Vietnam, in mid-2006, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) approved the project "Reducing the harm of arsenic in domestic water sources in Vietnam". The objective of the project is to determine the degree of arsenic contamination in domestic water sources nationwide; zoning domestic water sources with arsenic content exceeding the permitted standards.

Assess the impact of using arsenic-contaminated water on public health. Proposing solutions to minimize the harmful effects of living water contaminated with arsenic.

The total cost of implementing the project is nearly 17.7 billion VND, the implementation time is 2.5 years (2006-2008). In addition, domestic scientists also have research topics to help people quickly identify arsenic-contaminated water to avoid the harmful effects of contaminated water use.

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Summary from BBC, VNN and information from local newspapers