UChicago Research Bangladesh (URB)

Prolonged exposure to naturally occurring high levels of arsenic has been associated with cancers of the skins, lung, bladder, liver and kidney. Arsenic poisoning has also been linked to cardiovascular, endocrine and neurodevelopmental disorders. Hallmarks of chronic arsenic exposure include skin lesions, peripheral neuropathy and anemia. The onset of arsenic exposure in Bangladesh began in the 1970s with the introduction of hand-pumped tube wells. While these sources of clean water helped to reduce the incidence of waterborne illnesses, the tube wells also unwittingly exposed a large portion of the Bangladeshi population to water with naturally occurring high-levels of arsenic. As a result, as many as 70 million Bangladeshis are chronically exposed to arsenic through drinking water. The WHO has called this catastrophe the largest mass poisoning of a population in history. In 1999, the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University, with funding from the National Institutes ...