Multiple inorganic toxic substances contaminating the groundwater of Myingyan Township, Myanmar: arsenic, manganese, fluoride, iron, and uranium.

In South Asia, the technological and societal shift from drinking surface water to groundwater has resulted in a great reduction of acute diseases due to water borne pathogens. However, arsenic and other naturally occurring inorganic toxic substances present in groundwater in the region have been linked to a variety of chronic diseases, including cancers, heart disease, and neurological problems. Due to the highly specific symptoms of chronic arsenic poisoning, arsenic was the first inorganic toxic substance to be noticed at unsafe levels in the groundwater of West Bengal, India and Bangladesh.

A survey of arsenic, manganese, boron, thorium, and other toxic metals in the groundwater of a West Bengal, India neighbourhood.

Around 150 million people are at risk from arsenic-contaminated groundwater in India and Bangladesh. Multiple metal analysis in Bangladesh has found other toxic elements above the World Health Organization (WHO) health-based drinking water guidelines which significantly increases the number of people at risk due to drinking groundwater. In this study, drinking water samples from the Bongaon area (North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India) were analyzed for multiple metal contamination in order to evaluate groundwater quality on the neighbourhood scale.

Direct speciation analysis of arsenic in sub-cellular compartments using micro-X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

Identification of arsenic chemical species at a sub-cellular level is a key to understanding the mechanisms involved in arsenic toxicology and antitumor pharmacology. When performed with a microbeam, X-ray absorption near-edge structure (mu-XANES) enables the direct speciation analysis of arsenic in sub-cellular compartments avoiding cell fractionation and other preparation steps that might modify the chemical species. This methodology couples tracking of cellular organelles in a single cell by confocal or epifluorescence microscopy with local analysis of chemical species by mu-XANES.

Public health strategies for western Bangladesh that address arsenic, manganese, uranium, and other toxic elements in drinking water.

Background: More than 60,000,000 Bangladeshis are drinking water with unsafe concentrations of one or more elements.

Objectives: Our aims in this study were to evaluate and improve the drinking water testing and treatment plans for western Bangladesh.

Methods: We sampled groundwater from four neighborhoods in western Bangladesh to determine the distributions of arsenic, boron, barium, chromium, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, lead, antimony, selenium, uranium, and zinc, and to determine pH.

Subcellular speciation analysis of trace element oxidation states using synchrotron radiation micro-X-ray absorption near-edge structure.

Identification of chemical species at a subcellular level is a key to understand the mechanisms involved in the biology of chemical elements. When performed with a microbeam, X-ray absorption near-edge structure (micro-XANES) enables the direct speciation analysis of oxidation states in subcellular compartments avoiding cell fractionation and other preparation steps that might modify the chemical species. Here we report the principal characteristics in terms of spatial resolution, detection limit, reproducibility, and repeatability of a micro-XANES experimental setup based on Kirkpatrick-Baez X-ray focusing optics that maintains high flux of incoming radiation (>10(11) photons/s) at micrometric spatial resolution (1.