Jakariya Md, Vahter Marie, Rahman Mahfuzar, Wahed M Abdul, Hore Samar Kumar, Bhattacharya Prosun, Jacks Gunnar, Persson Lars Ake
Research and Evaluation Division, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, 75 Mohakhali, Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh.
Sci Total Environ. 2007 Jul 1;379(2-3):167-75. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2006.11.053. Epub 2007 Jan 29.
There is an urgent need for Bangladesh to identify the arsenic (As) contaminated tubewells (TWs) in order to assess the health risks and initiate appropriate mitigation measures. This will involve testing water in millions of TWs and raising community awareness about the health problems related to chronic As exposure from drinking water. Field test kits offer the only practical tool within the time frame and financial resources available for screening and assessment of the As contaminated TWs as well as their monitoring than that of the laboratory measurement. A comparison of field test kit and laboratory measurements by AAS as "gold standard" for As in water of 12,532 TWs in Matlab Upazila in Bangladesh, indicates that the field kit correctly determined the status of 91% of the As levels compared to the Bangladesh Drinking Water Standard (BDWS) of 50 microg/L, and 87% of the WHO guideline value of 10 microg/L. Nevertheless, due to analytical and human errors during the determination of As by the field test kits, some misclassification of wells is inevitable. Cross-checking of the field test kit results, both by Field Supervisor and by the laboratory analyses reveal considerable discrepancies in the correct screening mainly at As concentration ranges of 10-24.9 microg/L and 50-99.9 microg/L, critical from a public health point of view. The uncertainties of misclassification of these two groups of TWs have severe public health implications due to As exposure from drinking water sources. This can be reduced through proper training of the field personnel, cross verification of the field test kit results with laboratory analyses and further development of the field test kits to determine As at low concentrations.
孟加拉国迫切需要识别受砷污染的管井，以便评估健康风险并采取适当的缓解措施。这将涉及对数百万根管井的水质进行检测，并提高社区对与饮用水中慢性砷暴露相关健康问题的认识。现场检测试剂盒是在可用的时间框架和财政资源内，用于筛查和评估受砷污染管井及其监测的唯一实用工具，其效果优于实验室测量。对孟加拉国马特莱乡12532根管井水中的砷，采用现场检测试剂盒与作为“金标准”的原子吸收光谱法实验室测量结果进行比较，结果表明，与孟加拉国50微克/升的饮用水标准相比，现场试剂盒正确判定了91%的砷含量状况；与世界卫生组织10微克/升的指导值相比，正确判定率为87%。然而，由于现场检测试剂盒在测定砷的过程中存在分析误差和人为误差，一些井的分类错误不可避免。现场主管和实验室分析对现场检测试剂盒结果的交叉核对显示，在主要为10 - 24.9微克/升和50 - 99.9微克/升的砷浓度范围内，正确筛查存在相当大的差异，从公共卫生角度来看这很关键。这两组管井分类错误的不确定性，因饮用水源中的砷暴露而具有严重的公共卫生影响。通过对现场人员进行适当培训、将现场检测试剂盒结果与实验室分析进行交叉验证以及进一步开发现场检测试剂盒以测定低浓度的砷，可以减少这种影响。
