Arsenic contamination of the drinking water used by millions of people in Asia and elsewhere in the Developing World presents a major potential public health crisis. It is ironical that it is ground water accessed by deep tube wells that contains arsenic; these wells have been seen as a means of avoiding the use of surface water which contains little arsenic but is often full of microbes in many regions of the Developing World.
A recent special issue of the Journal of Health Population and Nutrition (JHPN Vol 24:3, September 2006) provides important new information on the extent of the arsenic problem and on strategies to deal with it. Probably children are particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of chronic arsenic intake. Of special concern are its possible roles in delayed cognitive development and in inducing malignant and non-malignant lung disease in young adults.
The cited JHPN issue provides an important service by bringing this subject to a wide research-oriented readership. It also highlights how much is still to be learned about arsenic contamination of water and its impact on human health. How does it get there? What does it do when it is ingested? What is its impact on the fetus, on children, on pregnant women? What is the geographical distribution of arsenic contamination and what should be done to reduce it? These are some of the issues for which hard data are needed.
As exemplified by several papers in the above JHPN issue, many of the answers to the above questions will require a multidisciplinary approach; this website, www.mother-child.org, with its weblog and other features should be well placed to facilitate discussion and planning of such strategies.