Center for Infrastructure Engineering, Western Sydney University, Australia; Faculty of Science and Technology, Federation University, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
Water and Environmental Engineering, School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, Western Sydney University, Australia.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2018 Apr 15;150:335-343. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2017.12.032. Epub 2018 Jan 4.
Arsenic contamination of drinking water, which can occur naturally or because of human activities such as mining, is the single most important public health issue in Bangladesh. Fifty out of the 64 districts in the country have arsenic concentration of groundwater exceeding 50µgL, the Bangladeshi threshold, affecting 35-77 million people or 21-48% of the total population. Chronic arsenic exposure through drinking water and other dietary sources is an important public health issue worldwide affecting hundreds of millions of people. Consequently, arsenic poisoning has attracted the attention of researchers and has been profiled extensively in the literature. Most of the literature has focused on characterising arsenic poisoning and factors associated with it. However, studies examining the socio-economic aspects of chronic exposure of arsenic through either drinking water or foods remain underexplored. The objectives of this paper are (i) to review arsenic exposure pathways to humans; (ii) to summarise public health impacts of chronic arsenic exposure; and (iii) to examine socio-economic implications and consequences of arsenicosis with a focus on Bangladesh. This scoping review evaluates the contributions of different exposure pathways by analysing arsenic concentrations in dietary and non-dietary sources. The socio-economic consequences of arsenicosis disease in Bangladesh are discussed in this review by considering food habits, nutritional status, socio-economic conditions, and socio-cultural behaviours of the people of the country. The pathways of arsenic exposure in Bangladesh include drinking water, various plant foods and non-dietary sources such as soil. Arsenic affected people are often abandoned by the society, lose their jobs and get divorced and are forced to live a sub-standard life. The fragile public health system in Bangladesh has been burdened by the management of thousands of arsenicosis victims in Bangladesh.
饮用水砷污染，无论是自然发生的还是由于采矿等人类活动引起的，都是孟加拉国最重要的公共卫生问题。该国 64 个行政区中有 50 个区的地下水砷浓度超过 50μg/L，这是孟加拉国的阈值，影响了 3500 万至 7700 万人，即总人口的 21%至 48%。通过饮用水和其他饮食来源摄入慢性砷会对全世界数百万人的健康产生重要影响。因此，砷中毒引起了研究人员的关注，并在文献中广泛报道。大多数文献都侧重于描述砷中毒的特征以及与砷中毒相关的因素。然而，研究慢性摄入水中砷或食物中砷的社会经济方面的研究仍未得到充分探索。本文的目的是：(i) 综述人类接触砷的途径；(ii) 总结慢性砷暴露的公共卫生影响；(iii) 考察孟加拉国通过饮用水和食物接触慢性砷暴露的社会经济影响和后果。本综述通过分析饮食和非饮食来源中砷的浓度，评估了不同暴露途径的贡献。本文还考虑了孟加拉国人的饮食习惯、营养状况、社会经济条件和社会文化行为，讨论了砷中毒疾病在孟加拉国的社会经济后果。孟加拉国的砷暴露途径包括饮用水、各种植物性食物以及土壤等非饮食来源。受砷影响的人经常被社会抛弃，失去工作，离婚，并被迫过着低于标准的生活。孟加拉国脆弱的公共卫生系统因管理数千名砷中毒患者而不堪重负。
