Multiple Regression Analysis of As Ground-Water Hazard and Assessment of As-Attributable Human Health Risks in Chakdha Block, West Bengal

SOLUBLE inorganic As is toxic with both cancer and non-cancer endpoints. Ofthe 80 million people in West Bengal, 50 million are living in the nine As-affected districts with millions at risk from using water for drinking, cooking or irrigation (Chakraborti et al., 2004). An environmental tragedy is developing in West Bengal with an alarming number ofcases ofskin lesions (Guha Mazumder et al., 1998; Mukherjee et al., 2005), respiratory symptoms (von Ehrenstein et al., 2005), adverse pregnancy outcomes and infant mortality (von Ehrenstein et al., 2006) and neurological complications (Mukherjee et al., 2005) associated with ingestion ofAs-contaminated water. Determining the As-attributable health risks quantitatively is important to the selection and prioritization and implementation ofmitigation measures. However, such assessments are difficult because of: (1) the scale of the problem; (2) the nature ofhea lth-reporting infrastructures; (3) difficulties in diagnosis of certain, particularly early-stage, end-points; and (4) particularly for cancers, long latency periods and multiple causes in addition to chronic As exposure. Here we briefly describe the key elements required for a risk assessment model for the population of West Bengal and present preliminary calculations for one ofthe most As-impacted blocks, Chakdha. The model is based upon systematic consideration of hazard distribution, exposure pathways and dose-response relationships for human receptors, with input data treated in a probabilistic manner, in which variability and uncertainty is described by probability distributions (Paustenbach, 2000).

MONDAL Debapriya;  HEGAN Aimee;  RODRIGUEZ LADO Luis;  BANERJEE Madhumita;  GIRI Aswini Kumar;  POLYA David; 

2008-12-02

MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY

JRC47475

0026-461X,   

http://minmag.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/extract/72/1/461,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC47475,   

10.1180/minmag.2008.072.1.461,