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DOI: 10.7763/IJESD.2011.V2.94
Assessment of Arsenic Exposure to Human, Concentrations in Tube Well Water and Urine, and Body Mass Index
Abstract—Arsenic in drinking water is a major public health concern in Bangladesh, affecting several millions of people who live in rural areas, because of insufficient financial resources and public health infrastructure and lack of awareness. The present study empirically analyzes the arsenic exposure to human, arsenic concentration in urine and tube well water and body mass index of sample respondents of a population survey. A five-stage sampling procedure was undertaken for the selecting the 418 sample respondents for examining the arsenic concentration in urine and body mass index and 86 sample tube well for testing the arsenic concentration in drinking water. It was found that the sample respondents had an average body mass index of 19.52 while the BMI of the sample respondents varied from 14.06 to 33.4 with standard deviation 3.02 which was represent the broad characteristics of BMI of rural residents. The average level of arsenic concentration in the drinking water was 285.37 ±193.13 μg/L with the ranging from 0 to 715.63 μg/L. The mean arsenic concentration in the urine of the sample respondents was 637.85 ± 478.69μg/L creatinine. The concentration levels varied from 93.03 – 3198.00μg/L creatinine. Melanosis in the palm, sole and trunk were the common signs in the patients. The present study shows that the highest amount of skin lesion was melanosis in palm (43.74%) and the second highest in trunk (37.49%). This study found high arsenic concentration in urine and drinking water and low body mass index.
Index Terms—Assessment, body mass index, exposure, human health, urinary arsenic.
Institute of Economic Research, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, 2-1 Naka, Kunitachi, Tokyo 186-8603, Japan (phone: 81-90-6654-9922; e-mail: mrs_bd@yahoo.com).
Cite: M. Mizanur Rahman Sarker, "Assessment of Arsenic Exposure to Human, Concentrations in Tube Well Water and Urine, and Body Mass Index," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 38-44, 2011.
