Arsenic : Study
A new study underlines the risk of using water contaminated with arsenic to cook rice, a staple food serving more than half the world’s population.
- Arsenic is a naturally occurring, semimetallic element widely distributed in the Earth’s crust.
- It is widely distributed throughout the environment in the air, water and land.
- It is a chemical element in the nitrogen group(Group 15 of the periodic table), existing in both gray and yellow crystalline forms.
- It is highly toxic in its inorganic form.
- People are exposed to elevated levels of inorganic arsenic through drinking contaminated water, using contaminated water in food preparation and irrigation of food crops, industrial processes, eating contaminated food and smoking tobacco.
- Long-term exposure to inorganic arsenic, mainly through drinking-water and food, can lead to chronic arsenic poisoning. Skin lesions and skin cancer are the most characteristic effects.
- In India, the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Chhattisgarh are reported to be most affected by arsenic contamination of groundwater above the permissible level.
