Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

High Arsenic Concentration in Blood Samples of People of Village Gyaspur Mahaji, Patna, Bihar Drinking Arsenic-Contaminated Water

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Exposure and Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Arsenic contamination in ground water is a serious and widespread global public health problem. It is estimated that more than 300 millions of population worldwide while about 180 million people in the Ganga–Meghna–Brahmaputra plains are exposed to arsenic poisoning. Out of 38 districts of Bihar, 18 are highly affected with ground water arsenic poisoning. A flood plain village of river Ganga Gyaspur Mahaji in Patna district was undertaken in the present study. The study deals with the survey of the entire village households with ground water arsenic quantification with special attention to know the health status of the arsenic-exposed population. The study revealed high arsenic concentration in the ground water of the village. The general health status of the village population was very poor as the subjects were exhibiting typical arsenicosis symptoms. Apart from this, they also had gastrointestinal problems, constipation, anaemia, loss of appetite, breathlessness, mental disability, etc. There were also reports of two cancer incidences from the village: one subject with squamous cell carcinoma of skin and the other with medullary breast cancer along with arsenicosis symptoms. The village population are getting infected and hence are at very high risk and may be impacted if they continue to drink arsenic-contaminated water in the future. Therefore, a proper strategy is urgently required for arsenic mitigation in this arsenic-exposed village through supply of safe drinking water.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abernathy CO, Liu YP, Longfellow D, Aposhian HV, Beck B, Fowler B, Goyer R, Menzer R, Rossman T, Thompson C, Waalkes M (1999) Arsenic: health effects, mechanisms of actions, and research issues. Environ Health Perspect 107:593–597

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Abhinav S, Navin S, Verma SK, Kumar R, Ali M, Kumar A, Ghosh AK (2016) Groundwater and blood samples assessment for arsenic toxicity in rural population of Darbhanga district of Bihar, India. In: Proceedings of the 6th International congress on arsenic in the environment, Stockholm, Sweden, 19–23 June 2016, Arsenic Research and Global Sustainability As 2016, Taylor & Francis group, London, pp 418–420

  • Acharya SK, Chakraborty P, Lahiri S, Raymahashay BC, Guha S, Bhowmik A (1999) Arsenic poisoning in the Ganges delta. Nature 401:545

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahamed S, Kumar SM, Mukherjee A, Amir HM, Das B, Nayak B, Pal A, Chandra Mukherjee S, Pati S, Nath Dutta R, Chatterjee G, Mukherjee A, Srivastava R, Chakraborti D (2006) Arsenic groundwater contamination and its health effects in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in upper and middle Ganga plain, India: a severe danger. Sci Total Environ 370(2–3):310–322

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • ATSDR (2005) US Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry. Toxicological Profile for Arsenic

  • Banerjee N, Paul S, Sau TJ, Das JK, Bandyopadhyay A, Banerjee S, Giri AK (2013) Epigenetic modifications of DAPK and p16 genes contribute to arsenic-induced skin lesions and nondermatological health effects. Toxicol Sci 135(2):300–308

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bates MN, Smith AH, Hopenhayn RC (1992) Arsenic ingestion and internal cancers: a review. Am J Epidemiol 135(5):462–476

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Benbrahim-Tallaa L, Waalkes MP (2008) Inorganic arsenic and human prostate cancer. Environ Health Perspect 116(2):158–164

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Census (2011) Interim Report of Population Census of India. (http://www.censusindia.gov.in/)

  • Chakraborti D, Rahman MM, Chowdhury UK, Paul K, Chowdhury UK, Sengupta MK, Lodh D, Chanda CR, Saha KC, Mukherjee SC (2002) Arsenic calamity in the Indian subcontinent: what lessons have been learned? Talanta 58:3–22

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chakraborti D, Mukherjee SC, Pati S, Sengupta MK, Rahman MM, Chowdhury UK, Lodh D, Chanda CR, Chakraborti AK, Basu GK (2003) Arsenic groundwater contamination in Middle Ganga Plain, Bihar, India: a future danger? Environ Health Perspect 111:1194–1201

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chakraborti D, Rahman MM, Ahamed S, Dutta RN, Pati S, Mukherjee SC (2016) Arsenic groundwater contamination and its health effects in Patna district (capital of Bihar) in the middle Ganga plain, India. Chemosphere 152:520–529

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chowdhury UK, Biswas BK, Chowdhury TR, Samanta G, Mandal BK, Basu GC, Chanda CR, Lodh D, Saha KC, Mukherjee SK, Roy S, Kabir S, Quamruzzaman Q, Chakraborti D (2000) Groundwater arsenic contamination in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. Environ Health Perspect 108(5):393–397

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fendorf S, Michael HA, van Geen A (2010) Spatial and temporal variations of groundwater arsenic in South and Southeast Asia. Science 328(5982):1123–1127

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Flanagan SV, Johnston RB, Zheng Y (2012) Arsenic in tube well water in Bangladesh: health and economic impacts and implications for arsenic mitigation. Bull World Health Organ 90(11):839–846

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghosh SK, Bandyopadhyay D, Bandyopadhyay SK, Debbarma K (2013) Cutaneous malignant and premalignant conditions caused by chronic arsenicosis from contaminated ground water consumption: a profile of patients from eastern India. Skin Med 11(4):211–216

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilmore TD (2006) Introduction to NF-κB: players, pathways, perspectives. Oncogene 51:6680–6684

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregori ID, Fuentes E, Rojas M, Pinochet H, Potin-Gautier M (2003) Monitoring of copper, arsenic and antimony levels in agricultural soils impacted and non-impacted by mining activities, from three regions in Chile. J Environ Monit 5(2):287–295

    Google Scholar 

  • Halder G, Johnson RL (2011) Hippo signaling: growth control and beyond. Development. 138(1):9–22

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hall M, Chenb Y, Ahsan H, Slavkovich V, van Geen A, Parvez F, Graziano J (2006) Blood arsenic as a biomarker of arsenic exposure: results from a prospective study. Toxicology 225:225–233

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Haque R, Mazumdar DNG, Samanta S, Ghosh N, Kalman D, Smith MM, Mitra S, Santra A, Lahiri S, Das S, De BK, Smith AH (2003) Arsenic in drinking water and skin lesions: dose-response data from West Bengal, India. Epidemiology 14(2):174–182

    Google Scholar 

  • Hassan M (2018) Arsenic in groundwater. CRC Press, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Hundal HS, Singh K, Singh D (2009) Arsenic content in ground and canal waters of Punjab, North-West India. Environ Monit Assess 154(1–4):393–400

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt KM, Srivastava RK, Elmets CA, Athar M (2014) The mechanistic basis of arsenicosis: pathogenesis of skin cancer. Cancer Lett 354(2):211–219

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • IARC (2012) International Agency for Research on Cancer. Lyon, France: World Health Organization; 2012. A review of human carcinogens: arsenic, metals, fibres, and dusts, vol 100C. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans

  • International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC) (2004) Some drinking-water disinfectants and contaminants including arsenic, in IARC: monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans. vol 84

  • Iyengar GV, Kollmer WE, Bowen HJM (1978) The elemental composition of human tissues and body fluids. Verlag Chemie, New York, p 151

    Google Scholar 

  • Iyer S, Sengupta C, Velumani A (2016) Blood arsenic: pan-India prevalence. Clin Chim Acta 455:99–101

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim KW, Chanpiwat P, Hanh HT, Phan K, Sthiannopkao S (2011) Arsenic geochemistry of groundwater in Southeast Asia. Front Med 5(4):420–433

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumagai Y, Sumi D (2007) Arsenic: signal transduction, transcription factor, and biotransformation involved in cellular response and toxicity. Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol 47:243–262

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar A, Ali Md, Md Rahman S, Md Iqubal A, Anand G, Niraj PK, Shankar P, Kumar R (2015) Ground water arsenic poisoning in “Tilak Rai Ka Hatta” Village of Buxar District, Bihar, India causing severe health hazards and hormonal imbalance. J Environ Anal Toxicol 5:290

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar A, Kumar R, Rahman MS, Iqubal M, Ali M, Niraj PK, Anand G, Kumar K (2016a) Ground water arsenic contamination: a local survey in India. Int J Prev Med 7:100

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar A, Kumar R, Ali M, Gahlot V, Ghosh AK (2016) Groundwater Arsenic poisoning in Buxar district of Bihar. In: Proceedings of the 6th International congress on arsenic in the environment, Stockholm, Sweden, 19–23 June 2016, Arsenic Research and Global Sustainability As2016, Taylor & Francis group, London, pp 378–379

  • Li C, Xu J, Li F, Chaudhary SC, Weng Z, Wen J, Weng Z, Wen J, Elmets CA, Ahsan H, Athar M (2011) Unfolded protein response signaling and MAP kinase pathways underlie pathogenesis of arsenic-induced cutaneous inflammation. Cancer Prev Res 4(12):2101–2109

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li C, Srivastava RK, Elmets CA, Afaq F, Athar M (2013) Arsenic-induced cutaneous hyperplastic lesions are associated with the dysregulation of Yap, a Hippo signaling-related protein. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 438(4):607–612

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mandal BK, Suzuki KT (2002) Arsenic round the world: a review. Talanta 58:201–235

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall G, Ferreccio C, Yuan Y, Bates MN, Steinmaus C, Selvin S et al (2007) Fifty-year study of lung and bladder cancer mortality in Chile related to arsenic in drinking water. J Natl Cancer Inst 99(12):920–928

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez VD, Vucic EA, Becker-Santos DD, Gil L, Lam WL (2011) Arsenic exposure and the induction of human cancers. J Toxicol 2011:431287

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazumdar DNG (2000) Diagnosis and treatment of chronic arsenic poisoning. WHO Publication; Drinking-water quality, pp 1–45

  • Melkonian S, Argos M, Chen Y, Parvez F, Pierce B, Ahmed A, Islam T, Ahsan H (2012) Intakes of several nutrients are associated with incidence of arsenic-related keratotic skin lesions in Bangladesh. J Nutr 142(12):2128–2134

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mosaferi M, Yunesian M, Mesdaghinia AR, Nasseri S, Mahvi AH, Nadim H (2005) Correlation between arsenic concentration in drinking water and human hair. Iranian J Environ Health Sci Eng 2(1):13–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Mushak Paul, McKinzie Matthew, Olson Erik, Metrick Alan (2000) Arsenic and old laws: a scientific and public health analysis of arsenic occurrence in drinking water, its health effects, and EPA’s outdated arsenic tap water standard. National Resources Defence Council, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • National Toxicology Program, Report on Carcinogens Research Triangle Park, NC:NTP. 12th ed. 2011. http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/twelfth/profiles/arsenic.pdf. Accessed 28 April 2014

  • Naujokas MF, Anderson B, Ahsan H, Aposhian HV, Graziano JH, Thompson C, Suk WA (2013) The broad scope of health effects from chronic arsenic exposure: update on a worldwide public health problem. Environ Health Perspect 121(3):295–302

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ngwoke KG, Uzoabaka TC, Ezemokwe I, Esimone C (2015) Levels of lead and arsenic in groundwater and blood of residents of Agulu, Nigeria. Pol J Environ Stud 24(4):1717–1721

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) (1994) Elements in blood or tissue. Method: 8005. In: NIOSH manual of analytical methods. 4 edn. Cincinnati OH: Department of Health and Human Service, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. DHHS publication, pp 94–113

  • Nordstrom DK (2002) Public health. World wide occurrences of arsenic in ground water. Science 296:2143–2145

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saha D (2009) Arsenic groundwater contamination in parts of middle Ganga plain, Bihar. Curr Sci 97(6):753–755

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shankar S, Shanker U (2014) Arsenic contamination of groundwater: a review of sources, prevalence, health risks, and strategies for mitigation. Sci World J 2014:1–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharma M, Sharma S, Arora M, Kaul D (2013) Regulation of cellular Cyclin D1 gene by arsenic is mediated through miR-2909. Gene 522(1):60–64

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Singh SK, Ghosh AK, Kumar A, Kislay K, Kumar C, Tiwari RR, Parwez R, Kumar N, Imam MD (2014) Groundwater Arsenic contamination and associated health risks in Bihar, India. Int J Environ Res 8(1):49–60

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Smith AH, Lingas EO, Rahman M (2000) Contamination of drinking-water by arsenic in Bangladesh: a public health emergency. Bull World Health Organ 78(9):1093–1103

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Trouba KJ, Wauson EM, Vorce RL (2000) Sodium arsenite-induced dysregulation of proteins involved in proliferative signaling. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 164(2):161–170

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tyler LN, Ai L, Zuo C, Fan CY, Smoller BR (2003) Analysis of promoter hypermethylation of death associated protein kinase and p16 tumor suppressor genes in actinic keratoses and squamous cell carcinomas of the skin. Mod Pathol 16:660–664

    Google Scholar 

  • Valentine JL, Kang HK, Spivey G (1979) Arsenic levels in human blood, urine, and hair in response to exposure via drinking water. Environ Res 20:24–32

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • WHO (2011) Background document for development of WHO guidelines for drinking-water quality. World Health Organization; Arsenic in Drinking-Water, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong SS, Tan KC, Goh CL (1998) Cutaneous manifestations of chronic arsenicism: review of seventeen cases. J Am Acad Dermatol 38(2 Pt 1):179–185

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (WHO) (1993) WHO guidelines for drinking-water quality, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland

  • Yu HS, Liao WT, Chai CY (2006) Arsenic carcinogenesis in the skin. J Biomed Sci 13(5):657–666

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yunus FM, Khan S, Chowdhury P, Milton AH, Hussain S, Rahman M (2016) A review of groundwater arsenic contamination in Bangladesh: the millennium development goal era and beyond. Int J Environ Res Public Health 13(2):215

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhao B, Ye X, Yu J, Li L, Li W, Li S, Yu J, Lin JD, Wang CY, Chinnaiyan AM, Lai ZC, Guan KL (2008) TEAD mediates YAP-dependent gene induction and growth control. Genes Dev 22(14):1962–1971

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support extended by Mahavir Cancer Sansthan and Research Centre, Patna for providing laboratory and other infrastructural facilities for this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mahavir Cancer Sansthan & Research Centre, Patna, Bihar, India

    Arun Kumar, Mohammad Ali, Ranjit Kumar, Abhinav Srivastava, Nirmal K. Chayal, Rishav Kumar, Pintoo Kumar Niraj, Gautam Anand & Ashok K. Ghosh

  2. Department of Biotechnology, A.N. College, Patna, Bihar, India

    Md. Samiur Rahman, Vivek Sagar, Ritu Kumari, Sana Parween & Sushil K. Singh

Authors
  1. Arun Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mohammad Ali
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ranjit Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Md. Samiur Rahman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Abhinav Srivastava
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Nirmal K. Chayal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Vivek Sagar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Ritu Kumari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Sana Parween
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Rishav Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Pintoo Kumar Niraj
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Gautam Anand
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Sushil K. Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Ashok K. Ghosh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arun Kumar.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest concerning this article.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kumar, A., Ali, M., Kumar, R. et al. High Arsenic Concentration in Blood Samples of People of Village Gyaspur Mahaji, Patna, Bihar Drinking Arsenic-Contaminated Water. Expo Health 12, 131–140 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-018-00294-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-018-00294-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation