Environmental pollution and chronic arsenicosis in south Calcutta

Careless handling of industrial wastes often creates problems for human health and the environment. Chronic arsenic toxicity, resulting from household use of arsenic-contaminated water occurred in 53 out of 79 members (67%) of 17 families residing in South Calcutta close to a factory that manufactured Paris-green (copper acetoarsenite). Clinical investigation of 20 of these affected persons showed typical skin pigmentation as well as palmar and plantar keratosis in all of them, while gastrointestinal symptoms, anaemia and signs of liver disease and peripheral neuropathy were seen in many. The water used by the affected families for drinking and cooking had been taken from shallow tubewells and had arsenic levels from 5.0 to 58 mg/l (WHO permissible limit, 0.05 mg/l). Other residents in the same area whose drinking-water came from deep tubewells or from tap water supplied by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (arsenic levels, less than 0.05 mg/l) were not affected. The study confirms that arsenic in the shallow tubewells was due to the waste discharged by the factory producing Paris-green.