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Double Health Risk in Arsenic Contaminated Drinking Water – Evidence of Enhanced Alpha Radioactivity

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Abstract

The presence of alpha emitting radionuclides in the environment assumes importance since they are found to be carcinogenic. This paper reports the results of an exhaustive and systematic measurement of alpha radioactivity using solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD) in drinking water in different parts of India covering the entire Ganges Basin – West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where arsenic contamination is severe. The alpha activity in the samples was found in the range of 8 to 800 Bq/l in West Bengal, 90 to 1,000 Bq/l in Uttar Pradesh and 60 to 1,000 Bq/l in Bihar – much higher alpha activity value than MCL value given by US EPA. The concentration of alpha activity has a positive correlation with that of arsenic.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge Prof. Asok Nath Basu, Vice chancellor, Jadavpur University, for his extraordinary enthusiasm, inspiration and active guidance. They are also grateful to Dr. Debasis Ghose, VECC, Kolkata, for his valuable suggestions at any stage of the work. They are also thankful to Prof. Dipankar Chakraborty, Director, School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, for measurement of arsenic concentration in water samples and providing samples also and Prof. S. K. Acharyya, Department of Geology, Jadavpur University, Dr. Abdul Kayum Jafry for providing them the arsenic contaminated drinking water samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Studies in Environmental Radiation and Archaeological Sciences & Nuclear and Particle Physics Research Centre, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

    Dipak Ghosh, Argha Deb, Kanchan Kumar Patra, Rosalima Sengupta & Sukumar Bera

  2. Department of Physics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700 032, India

    Dipak Ghosh, Argha Deb, Kanchan Kumar Patra, Rosalima Sengupta & Sukumar Bera

Authors
  1. Dipak Ghosh
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  2. Argha Deb
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  3. Kanchan Kumar Patra
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  4. Rosalima Sengupta
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  5. Sukumar Bera
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Correspondence to Dipak Ghosh.

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Ghosh, D., Deb, A., Patra, K.K. et al. Double Health Risk in Arsenic Contaminated Drinking Water – Evidence of Enhanced Alpha Radioactivity. Water Air Soil Pollut 187, 81–87 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-007-9499-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-007-9499-5

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