It was meant to bring an end to the tens of thousands of deaths caused by contaminated drinking water in Bangladesh and West Bengal, but the deep wells dug to provide what was thought to be safe water has resulted in what’s described as the worst mass poisoning in human history.
Venomous Earth published on Monday, January 17, is an account of the environmental health disaster currently unfolding in that region caused by people drinking water which contains arsenic well above safe and acceptable levels.
The book, written by Professor Andy Meharg, an arsenic expert at the University of Aberdeen, details the tragedy which began when tubewells were dug in the Seventies to prevent the many deaths from cholera, typhoid and dysentery which often followed the consumption of contaminated surface water.
The arsenic is being released into the groundwater in the tubewells via naturally occurring aquifer conditions.
Professor Meharg, who visited Bangladesh last year, said: “The water that was meant to bring life has brought death. The people affected by this crisis are among the poorest on earth. They suffer floods, cyclones, famine and disease. A populace could scarely be less capable of coping with poison in its drinking water - a poison which has no taste and no immediate side effects.
“Over one hundred million people may now be at risk of routinely drinking dangerous levels of arsenic, which is an element that causes skin, bladder and lung cancer, stillbirths and heart attacks. It also causes black spots on the trunks of sufferers which often leads to them being treated as social outcasts by their community.”
The Professor of Biogeochemistry, who studies and teaches the impact of pollutants on the environment, also compares in his book the Asian situation with that in other parts of the world where drinking water is tainted with arsenic, such as the Southwestern USA, the Alto Plano of South America and New Zealand’s volcanic regions.
Venomous Earth also charts man's use of arsenic - between 3500 and 2500 BC arsenic-containing minerals were central to the development of bronze. It also chronicles how it was used by alchemists, in farming, medicine, manufacturing and in beauty products. The book includes details about the acclaimed poet, artist and designer William Morris, who Professor Meharg identified as a user of arsenic and other toxic chemicals to provide the vibrant green colour for which his wallpapers are famed.
The book also contains accounts of arsenic's role in the Vietnam War and the decisions made by George W Bush over the chemical.
Venomous Earth is published by Macmillan on January 17.
