Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Assessment of arsenic exposure and its mitigation intervention in severely exposed population of Buxar district of Bihar, India

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Toxicology and Environmental Health Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

The present study aims to carry out the assessment of arsenic contamination in groundwater samples along with the health status of the exposed population of Buxar district of Bihar.

Methods

In the present study, randomly 80 groundwater samples were collected from the handpumps across the village households. For the health assessment, blood samples from human subjects were collected from the same household to know the status of the arsenic contamination in their body and were analysed.

Results

The study showed significantly very high arsenic contamination in their handpumps as well as in the blood samples of the exposed subjects. The maximum arsenic concentration observed in the handpump water sample was 1908 μg/L, while in blood sample of an individual was 462.1 μg/L. Cancer in 12 subjects was also observed within 2 years. The mitigation intervention was carried out by installing an arsenic filter plant for this arsenic exposed village population. After one year of the usage of the installed arsenic filter, there was significant reduction in the disease symptoms in the exposed population.

Conclusion

The present study deciphers the groundwater status as well as the health status of the arsenic exposed population of a village of Bihar along with an mitigation approach to overcome the disease burden.

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

  1. Ahamed S, Kumar SM, Mukherjee A, Amir HM, Das B, Nayak B (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

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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

    CAS  Google Scholar 

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

    Book  Google Scholar 

  4. Chakraborti D, Rahman MM, Chowdhury UK, Paul K, Sengupta MK, Lodh D (2002) Arsenic calamity in the Indian subcontinent: What lessons have been learned? Talanta 58:3–22

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. 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

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. 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 

  7. 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

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Kumar A, Ali M, Rahman SM, Iqubal AM, 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

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

  10. Kumar A, Rahman MS, Kumar R, Ali M, Niraj PK, Srivastava A, Singh SK, Ghosh AK (2019) Arsenic contamination in groundwater causing impaired memory and intelligence in school children of Simri village of Buxar district of Bihar. J Mental Health Hum Behav 24:132–138. https://doi.org/10.4103/jmhhb.jmhhb_31_18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. World Health Organization (WHO) (1993) WHO Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland

  12. Marshall G, Ferreccio C, Yuan Y, Bates MN, Steinmaus C, Selvin S (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

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. NWP (2012) Draft National Water Policy as recommended by National Water Board. Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India. (Retrieved 15 August 2012), pp 1–50

  14. Krassas GE (2000) Thyroid disease and female reproduction. Fertil Steril 74(6):1063–1070

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Haque R, Mazumdar DNG, Samanta S, Ghosh N, Kalman D, Smith MM (2003) Arsenic in drinking water and skin lesions: dose-response data from West Bengal, India. Epidemiology 14(2):174–182

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Rahman MS, Kumar A, Kumar R, Ali M, Ghosh AK, Singh SK (2019) Comparative Quantification Study of Arsenic in the Groundwater and Biological Samples of Simri Village of Buxar District, Bihar, India. Indian J Occup Environ Med 23:126–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. ATSDR (2005) Draft Toxicological Profile for Arsenic US Department of health and human services, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

  18. WHO (2011) Guidelines for drinking-water quality—4th ed. Geneva: World Health Organization

  19. Katiyar S, Singh D (2014) Prevalence of arsenic exposure in population of Ballia district from drinking water and its correlation with blood arsenic level. J Environ Biol 35(3):589–594

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Chowdhury TR, Basu GK, Mandal BK, Biswas BK, Samanta G, Chowdhury UK (1999) Arsenic poisoning in the Ganges Delta. Nature 401:545–546

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Karim M (2000) Arsenic in groundwater and health problems in Bangladesh. Water Resour 34(1):304–310

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Hall M, Chenb Y, Ahsan H, Slavkovich V, Geenc AV, Parvez F (2006) Blood arsenic as a biomarker of arsenic exposure: results from a prospective study. Toxicology 225:225–233

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. 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

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. IARC (2014) Some drinking-water disinfectants and contaminants including arsenic, IARC: monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to Humans/World Health Organisation. Int Agency Res Cancer 2004(84):1

    Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  27. Kumar A, Ali M, Kumar R, Rahman MS, Sivastava A, Chayal NK, Sagar V, Kumari R, Parween S, Kumar R, Niraj PK, Anand G, Singh SK, Ghosh AK (2020) High arsenic concentration in blood samples of people of village Gyaspur Mahaji, Patna, Bihar drinking arsenic contaminated water. Springer Nature J Expos Health 12:131–140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-018-00294-5

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Hopenhayn RC, Biggs ML, Fuchs A (1996) Bladder cancer mortality associated with arsenic in drinking water in Argentina. Epidemiology 7(2):117–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Ferreccio C, Gonzalez C, Milosavjlevic V, Marshall G, Sancha AM, Smith AH (2000) Lung cancer and arsenic concentrations in drinking water in Chile. Epidemiology 11(6):673–679

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Rossman TG (2003) Mechanism of arsenic carcinogenesis. An integrated approach. Mutat Res 533:37–65

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. 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

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Chen CL, Chiou HY, Hsu LI, Hsueh YM, Wu MM, Wang YH, Chen CJ (2010) Arsenic in drinking water and risk of urinary tract cancer: a follow-up study from northeastern Taiwan. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 19(1):101–10

  34. 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

  35. Kim TH, Seo JW, Hong YS, Song KH (2017) Case-control study of chronic low-level exposure of inorganic arsenic species and non-melanoma skin cancer. J Dermatol 44(12):1374–1379. https://doi.org/10.1111/1346-8138.13993

  36. Andrew AS, Karagas MR, Hamilton JW (2003) Decreased DNA repair gene expression among individuals exposed to arsenic in United States drinking water. Int J Cancer 104(3):263–268

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Andrew AS, Nelson HH, Kelsey KT, Moore JH, Meng AC, Casella DP, Tosteson TD, Schned AR, Karagas MR (2006) Concordance of multiple analytical approaches demonstrates a complex relationship between DNA repair gene SNPs, smoking and bladder cancer susceptibility. Carcinogenesis 27(5):1030–1037

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Zhou Q, Xi S (2018) A review on arsenic carcinogenesis: Epidemiology, metabolism, genotoxicity and epigenetic changes. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 99:78–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yrtph.2018.09.010

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Wasserman GA, Liu X, Parvez F, Ahsan H, Factor-Litvak P, Van-Geen A, Slavkovich V, Lolacono NJ, Cheng Z, Hussain I, Momotaj H, Graziano JH (2004) Water arsenic exposure and children’s intellectual function in Araihazar, Bangladesh [erratum appears in Environ. Health Perspect. (2004) 112(17):A980]. Environ Health Perspect 112:1329–1333

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Aposhian HV, Aposhian MM (2006) Arsenic toxicology: five questions. Chem Res Toxicol 19:1–15

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Lantz RC, Hays AM (2006) Role of oxidative stress in arsenic-induced toxicity. Drug Metab Rev 38(4):791–804

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Mandal P (2017) Molecular insight of arsenic-induced carcinogenesis and its prevention. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Arch Pharmacol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-017-1351-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Koedrith P, Seo YR (2011) Advances in carcinogenic metal toxicity and potential molecular markers. Int J Mol Sci 12(12):9576–9595

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Stamatelos SK, Androulakis IP, Kong AN, Georgopoulos PG (2013) A semi-mechanistic integrated toxicokinetic-toxicodynamic (TK/TD) model for arsenic (III) in hepatocytes. J Theor Biol 317:244–256

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Lopez-Carrillo L, Hernandez-Ramirez RU, Gandolfi AJ, Ornelas-Aguirre JM, Torres-Sanchez L, Cebrian ME (2014) Arsenic methylation capacity is associated with breast cancer in northern Mexico. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 280:53–59

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Bustaffa E, Stoccoro A, Bianchi F, Migliore L (2014) Genotoxic and epigenetic mechanisms in arsenic carcinogenicity. Arch Toxicol 88(5):1043–1067. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-014-1233-7

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Smith AH, Marshall G, Roh T, Ferreccio C, Liaw J, Steinmaus C (2018) Lung, bladder, and kidney cancer mortality 40 years after arsenic exposure reduction. J Natl Cancer Inst 110:241–249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Kumar A, Ali M, Kumar R, Kumar M, Sagar P, Pandey RK, Akhouri V, Kumar V, Anand G, Niraj PK, Rani R, Kumar S, Kumar D, Bishwapriya A, Ghosh AK (2021) Arsenic exposure in Indo Gangetic plains of Bihar causing increased cancer risk. Sci Rep 11(1):2376. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81579-9

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  49. Census (2011) Interim Report of Population Census of India. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-common/census_2011.html

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

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Department of Science and Technology (SSTP Division), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi, for the financial assistance of this work and to the institutes for the entire infrastructural facilities. Authors are thankful to the clinician, Professor Kunal Kanti Majumdar, Consultant, Department of Public Health, KPC Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India) for the diagnosis of the arsenicosis symptoms in the exposed population. The authors are also thankful to Professor Arup Sengupta, Lehigh University, USA, and Tagore Sengupta Foundation, Kolkata, West Bengal, India, for installing the arsenic filter plant for the studied village. This work was supported by Department of Science and Technology (DST), TDT-SSTP Division, New Delhi, India (Government of India), Research Project No. DST/SSTP/Bihar/155/2011 (G).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre, Mahavir Cancer Sansthan and Research Centre, Phulwarisharif, Patna, 801505, Bihar, India

    Arun Kumar, Mohammad Ali, Pintoo Kumar Niraj & Ashok Kumar Ghosh

  2. Anugrah Narayan College, (Magadh University, Bodh-Gaya), Patna, Bihar, India

    Md. Samiur Rahman, Vivek Akhouri & Sushil Kumar Singh

  3. Department of Animal Sciences, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamsala, India

    Ranjit Kumar

  4. Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Dhruv Kumar & Tuhin Rashmi

  5. Geological Survey of India, Patna, Bihar, India

    Akhouri Bishwapriya

  6. Department of Zoology, Patna University, Patna, Bihar, India

    Gyanendra Bahadur Chand

  7. Department of International Studies, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 2778563, Japan

    Maiko Sakamoto

Authors
  1. Arun Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Md. Samiur Rahman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mohammad Ali
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ranjit Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Pintoo Kumar Niraj
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Vivek Akhouri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Sushil Kumar Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Dhruv Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Tuhin Rashmi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Akhouri Bishwapriya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Gyanendra Bahadur Chand
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Maiko Sakamoto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Ashok Kumar Ghosh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors listed made substantial contributions from conception, research design, data analysis and interpretation of data. In detail: AK received project grant, AK, MA and RK designed the project and carried out the survey work, MSR and PKN carried out the entire experimental part, and data analysis was carried out by SKS, VA and TR. Data interpretation and manuscript writing were done by AK, GBC, MS and DK. The geological aspect (GIS mapping) and the disease burden assessment was done by AK, MSR, VA and AB. Final proof reading was carried out by Ashok Kumar Ghosh.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arun Kumar.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Arun Kumar, Md. Samiur Rahman, Mohammad Ali, Ranjit Kumar, Pintoo Kumar Niraj, Vivek Akhouri, Sushil Kumar Singh, Dhruv Kumar, Tuhin Rashmi, Akhouri Bishwapriya, Gyanendra Bahadur Chand, Maiko Sakamoto, Ashok Kumar Ghosh have no conflicts of interests concerning this article.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) of the institute before the start of the research work. The research survey was carried out between April 2014 to July 2020 with IEC 2014- agenda number -03; dated 08/07/2014. Informed written consent was obtained from the selected household subjects before the start of the collection of the blood samples.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kumar, A., Rahman, M.S., Ali, M. et al. Assessment of arsenic exposure and its mitigation intervention in severely exposed population of Buxar district of Bihar, India. Toxicol. Environ. Health Sci. 13, 287–297 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13530-021-00086-6

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13530-021-00086-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation