UNIVERSIDAD DE LA FUERZAS ARMADAS ESPE NOMBRE: DALI PIA CURSO: OCTAVO INGENIERIA AUTMOTRIZ CONTAMINATION IN WEST BENGAL INTRODUCTION

Arsenic is a chemical element with toxicity and carcinogenic properties; the most common way in which people consume or ingest this element is due to the consumption of water or by eating food that was in Bangladesh and West Bengal. The Bengal basin is located in eastern India and Bangladesh, and is formed by the confluence of two major rivers of the world, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, as well as Meghna and other Damodar. This is where it originated arsenic contamination in groundwater in the area Ganges -Brahmaputra, but over time po spread some remote areas to which unfortunately they are not able to detect previously as in Bihar, India. In the western part of Bengal basin there is a large population, the same that depends mostly of ground water for use in their homes and also to its risks, and this pollution causes health risk of about 50 million people. When there is the presence of arsenic in the water that is preventing arsenicosis ( chronic disease that results from drinking water with high levels of arsenic over a long period of time, the health consequences include skin problems , cancer skin , liver cancer, kidney and lung, blood vessel problems in the feet and legs, other symptoms include diabetes , high blood pressure and reproductive problems ) , as well as in contaminated groundwater, the presence of additional selenium can prevent or reduce the risk of this disease. Through a proposal sought since 1998 to include in a diet for infants to selenium, that if this spreads could help prevent the spread of pandemic toxicity. Later will emphasize the advantages of selenium against this poisoning. In Bengal percent have been drilled deep wells in order to get uncontaminated water, but has not demonstrated that this is ideal , ie the interaction between deep and shallow . He has not received the attention it needs and has not been deep study. Several researchers have studied the groundwater , but none have come to the same place where is located this evil . DEVELOPMENT Arsenic is a naturally occurring non-metallic toxic to animals and humans in most chemical forms depending on the amount of exposure. Arsenic occurs naturally in the earth's crust at about 2 ppm , but can be found in more concentrated forms in complex minerals such as iron in association with arsenopyrite ( FeAsS ) or sulfur

as Orpiment ( As4S6 ) . These and other minerals in association with arsenic is often found in geological layers as strata containing arsenic are exposed to groundwater is not degradation and dissolution of minerals within strata of inorganic arsenic release . As a result of the dissolution of these arsenic bearing strata is released arsenic contaminates groundwater sources within the subsurface. The chemical forms of arsenic in groundwater are arsenite and arsenate national , which are odorless and nearly tasteless. Currently these forms are believed to be the cause of the contamination of groundwater , although it is said that this is rare. The area where you must perform the study are the five districts in the south east of West Bengal. Then we have the Maldah southern , east of Murshidabad , Parganas northern and north -central South Parganas , located 200km from the Himalayas. Ganges , West Bengal has a warm and humid climate , with distinct wet and dry seasons . The security level in groundwater is set at 50 mg / l or 50 ppb (0.05 mg / l ) . Foods often contain from 0.020 to 0.014 mg As / g usually less toxic organic forms . Likely arsenic toxicity particularly arsenite , functions as a pro-oxidant in addition to its interference with biological phosphate metabolism . Arsenic is classified as a human carcinogen in the skin , liver , bladder , kidneys and lungs by the Environmental Protection Agency U.S. (EPA ) . Sixty-four of groundwater were collected from seven river water and 14 samples of rainwater in the months of May to August 2003-2005. During 2003 , groundwater samples were collected after unfiltered , and not measured field parameters . During 2004 and 2005, groundwater samples were collected according to standard protocols. Wells were purged from 40 to 75 min until EH , pH, electrical conductivity and temperature stabilized. Each sample was then taken through a filter of disposable plastic capsule lm 0.45. Sampled river water using a filtration unit hand with the same type of filter. While performing the sampling became known that selenium is essential in the human diet , and it was necessary to consume a certain amount daily , but not exceed it because it becomes toxic , but a unique property of selenium is not held by other elements is the ability to detoxify a number of essential and toxic heavy metals , can detoxify heavy metals , lead, cadmium , mercury , and the precious metal silver and essential trace minerals , copper and iron . Most importantly for the hypothesis below is the ability of selenium to detoxify arsenic toxicity and vice versa. Then we have four hypotheses : 1. Rational 1: Selenium is essential for humans, and significant amounts of selenium are almost always associated with animal protein diet, ie selenium supplementation improves the performance of animals and increases the

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intake of selenium in the diet most meat products consumed by Americans, but in Bangladesh (May 2000) the diet of many people in the delta is likely low in total protein, especially animal protein. Rational 2: Selenium is essential for humans and the likely widespread selenium deficiencies exist in soils in the Ganges -Brahmaputra delta, and selenium levels of soil throughout the delta of the Ganges -Brahmaputra is generally very low selenium and as the Yangtze Delta in a form not easily absorbed by plants. Rational 3: Live arsenic and selenium complex interact with each other, the first references that show a specific interaction of selenium in animals with arsenic toxicity and prevention of arsenic toxicity by selenium began to appear in the literature ( 1999). And it was found that selenium can and will directly counteract arsenic in two different ways by eliminating toxicity killing andyor increasing biliary excretion or by forming hemiselenides arsenic deposits in tissues. Rational 4: Selenium is an antioxidant and anticarcinogenic as a component of the family of enzymes glutathione peroxidase, a strong epidemiological association between the ingestion of selenium and cancer prevention in humans. Rationale 5: The arsenic is a factor of oxidative stress and pro - human carcinogen , arsenic has been shown experimentally in mice to be a co - UV carcinogen ( skin cancer ) Rationale 6: selenium counteracts the toxicity of arsenic and selenium deficiency in rats increases the toxicity of arsenic, selenium deficiency appears to increase significantly toxic effects arsenite / arsenate on growth in rats.

Isotopic analyzes of samples from 2003 and 2004 were carried out at the University of Kentucky Environmental Research , 2005 analysis of isotope samples were performed at the University of Arizona Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry . Due to the small number of samples , data not rainwater compositions were used to calculate annual weighted averages , and this analysis suggests that pre rainfall - monsoon may come from local sources isotopically enriched moisture ( such as water bodies evaporated surface ) , while the monsoon rain clouds have traveled a greater distance and had multiple fractions before precipitation . All river water samples below the plot. Samples Bhagirathi - Hooghly, d18O values of _5.6 and _5.7, that are depleted and Jalangi Ichamati samples with d18O of _3.2 and _0.4. The Bhagirathi - Hoogly values are more enriched than other values reported for the river (Shivanna,1999,2003). No data from other studies seem to exist for Jalangi and Ichamati. One sample Ichamati was much richer than the

other samples of river water. Some of the samples deviate from the waters of the Ganges - Bhagirathi - Hooghly are also in the vicinity of the river Jalangi, indicating the possibility of the influence of both rivers. Based on the similarities between the isotopic data of 1979 and 1999 (the last reported by Aggarwal (2000), concluded that the extensive irrigation pumping from 1979 had not altered the regional groundwater flow in the Bengal Basin . The authors infer that that pumping would have resulted in the mixing of isotopically enriched irrigation flow back with more depleted groundwater. Pumping may have homogenized the isotopic composition vertically main aquifer water in our study area , and lateral differences persist due to continental effect . CONCLUSION Through this study it was determined that there is a steady amount of oxygen and hydrogen isotopic compositions of the water, which in turn show that monsoon rainfall is usually more exhausted than pre - monsoon rains in Gangetic West Bengal, India. The isotopic composition of deeper water of the main aquifer in the study area suggests recharge under current climatic conditions , with the prevailing southwest monsoon from the Bay of Bengal and moving towards the north ( towards the eastern Himalayas ) and west -northwest (towards the north-central India). Many people in Bangladesh and West Bengal , India are exposed to high levels of arsenic in groundwater national geological strata once loaded from Nepal is now based in the Ganges -Brahmaputra delta ( Witze , 2003 ) . And there is a way to counteract the effects of poisoning by selenium, which although still in a phase of study will save hundreds of lives in West Bengal.