ABSTRACT
The element arsenic that claimed many lives in the past due to its potential use as a homicidal poison has started claiming lives since the last 100 years in its new avatar, chronic arsenicosis. The menace was identied in the beginning of twentieth century in Argentina (1917) and since then cases were reported from Chile (1962), China/Taiwan (1968), and Southeast Asia since the last two decades of the last century (in 1983 from India, West Bengal, 1995 from Bangladesh, and 1996 from Taiwan). Since then, other countries have joined the parade including Pakistan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Cambodia [1] and in India, apart from West Bengal, other states including Assam, Manipur, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh also are reported to be in the grip of this deadly disease [2]. The importance of groundwater in causing this chronic multisystem disorder came to the notice of the medical fraternity since the report by Dr K. C. Saha in 1982 from the School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata [3]. Groundwater remains the key source of arsenic contamination in Southeast Asia, though surface water (especially in Latin American countries), organic sea food (in Canada, Japan, etc.), bioaccumulation (from crops, meat, milk product, etc.), and industrial poisoning (e.g., smelting and microelectronic industry) are also potential sources for arsenic exposure.
