Half of Bangladesh population at risk of arsenic poisoning

Bangladesh may be heading for an epidemic of arsenic poisoning with an estimated 60 million regularly ingesting arsenic through drinking contaminated groundwater, a public health specialist cautioned last week.

More than 7000 people in Bangladesh have already been diagnosed with symptoms of arsenic poisoning but half of the country's population may be at risk, Enamul Karim, vice president of the Bangladesh public health association, said at a conference on international health, which was sponsored by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and held at Harvard University.

Surveys of groundwater used for drinking and cooking have identified unacceptably high concentrations of arsenic in …