In March of this year I had the privilege of attending a seminar on the arsenic disaster in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. The Seminar was titled “World’s Largest Man-made Arsenic Disaster in Bangladesh and West Bengal – An Urgent Call to Save a Nation. This was the second time I had the opportunity to learn about this terrible disaster. The first was at a presentation by Meer Husain, Professional Geologist, at a Kansas Geological Society meeting. Mr Husain is an environmental geologist working for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. My first contact with Meer was at Cowley County Community College where he is an Adjunct Professor.

The impact of this disaster has not lessened over time. The amount of people affected by this is monumental to say the least. The second overwhelming fact is how little has been accomplished to help these people and reduce and eliminate the dangers of arsenic poisoning. At the seminar in March, 2007 several solutions were offered but all take money: something Bangladesh has a shortage of.

In the February 2007 issue of GEOTIMES I discovered a word for this terrible disease. It is arsenicosis: defined as chronic arsenic poisoning form drinking water with complications of gangrene, skin cancer and large tissue overgrowths on the palms and soles of the feet. This disease is considered to be in epidemic proportions.

Water can be filtered but filters cost money and the sludge produced by filtering must be dealt with in a proper manner; again cost is important. This disaster also has an effect on West Bengal so the governments of Bangladesh and India are urged to come together to put their resources together to solve this disaster and let the people of this area live their lives to full potential free of this terrible poisoning.

Respectfully,
Ernie Morrison
Geologist
E Mail : EMorrison@MULLDRLG.com