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Comparison of drinking water, raw rice and cooking of rice as arsenic exposure routes in three contrasting areas of West Bengal, India

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Abstract

Remediation aimed at reducing human exposure to groundwater arsenic in West Bengal, one of the regions most impacted by this environmental hazard, are currently largely focussed on reducing arsenic in drinking water. Rice and cooking of rice, however, have also been identified as important or potentially important exposure routes. Quantifying the relative importance of these exposure routes is critically required to inform the prioritisation and selection of remediation strategies. The aim of our study, therefore, was to determine the relative contributions of drinking water, rice and cooking of rice to human exposure in three contrasting areas of West Bengal with different overall levels of exposure to arsenic, viz. high (Bhawangola-I Block, Murshidibad District), moderate (Chakdha Block, Nadia District) and low (Khejuri-I Block, Midnapur District). Arsenic exposure from water was highly variable, median exposures being 0.02 μg/kg/d (Midnapur), 0.77 μg/kg/d (Nadia) and 2.03 μg/kg/d (Murshidabad). In contrast arsenic exposure from cooked rice was relatively uniform, with median exposures being 0.30 μg/kg/d (Midnapur), 0.50 μg/kg/d (Nadia) and 0.84 μg/kg/d (Murshidabad). Cooking rice typically resulted in arsenic exposures of lower magnitude, indeed in Midnapur, median exposure from cooking was slightly negative. Water was the dominant route of exposure in Murshidabad, both water and rice were major exposure routes in Nadia, whereas rice was the dominant exposure route in Midnapur. Notwithstanding the differences in balance of exposure routes, median excess lifetime cancer risk for all the blocks were found to exceed the USEPA regulatory threshold target cancer risk level of 10−4–10−6. The difference in balance of exposure routes indicate a difference in balance of remediation approaches in the three districts.

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Acknowledgments

PRAMA is a UKIERI (UK India Education and Research Initiative) project funded by the British Council, the UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), Office of Science and Innovation, the FCO, and the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. We acknowledge the Scottish government, Northern Ireland, Wales, GSK, BP, Shell and BAE for the benefit of the India Higher Education Sector and the UK Higher Education Sector. DM acknowledges the receipt of a Dorothy Hodgkins Postgraduate Award. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the funding bodies. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the University of Manchester Committee on the Ethics of Research on Human Beings (Ref. 05031/12 May 2005) and from IICB. We acknowledge and thank Professor Dipankar Chakraborti and Ross Nickson and their groups for their kind help during the surveys and discussion. We thank Louise Ander and an anonymous reviewer for thoughtful comments that led to improvements in the clarity of the manuscript. Elements of this work were presented at the “Practical Applications of Medical Geology” meeting at the British Geology Survey 19th–20th March 2009. We thank the organisers, and in particular Mark Cave and Michael Watts, for the opportunity to present our work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Debapriya Mondal, Mayukh Banerjee, Manjari Kundu, Nilanjana Banerjee, Udayan Bhattacharya & David A. Polya

  2. Molecular and Human Genetics Division, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, 4 Raja S.C. Mullick Road, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700 032, India

    Debapriya Mondal, Mayukh Banerjee, Manjari Kundu, Nilanjana Banerjee, Udayan Bhattacharya & Ashok K. Giri

  3. Department of Statistics, University of Calcutta, 35 Bullygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700 019, India

    Bhaswati Ganguli & Sugata Sen Roy

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  1. Debapriya Mondal
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Mondal, D., Banerjee, M., Kundu, M. et al. Comparison of drinking water, raw rice and cooking of rice as arsenic exposure routes in three contrasting areas of West Bengal, India. Environ Geochem Health 32, 463–477 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-010-9319-5

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