Bangladeshi workers try to stop rain-water from over flowing using bricks near Dhaka's low lying area of Mirpur, Bangladesh, Sunday, June 22, 2003. (AP)
Bangladeshis Poisoned by Tainted Water Story aired: Tuesday, June 24, 2003
In this country, we've heard a bit about arsenic in drinking water in the past few years. The Clinton administration tightened standards, the Bush administration considered relaxing them, and then, just last Friday, a federal appeals court upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's new, stricter limits on allowable arsenic levels. The new standard is ten parts per billion.
In Bangladesh and parts of Eastern India, arsenic levels are often much higher than that. By some estimates more than 300 million people in the region are at risk of chronic arsenic toxicity, with many thousands already showing symptoms of exposure to the odorless, tasteless, colorless poison.
Richard Wilson is a Mallinckrodt research professor of physics at Harvard University. He has a longstanding interest in the poisoned wells of Bangladesh and he joins Here and Now to discuss the problem and what can be done about it.
Guests:
Richard Wilson, Mallinckrodt research professor of physics at Harvard University
