Double Health Risk in Arsenic Contaminated Drinking Water - Evidence of Enhanced Alpha Radioactivity

Ghosh, Dipak; Deb, Argha; Patra, Kanchan Kumar; Sengupta, Rosalima; Bera, Sukumar

Double Health Risk in Arsenic Contaminated Drinking Water - Evidence of Enhanced Alpha Radioactivity

2008

Ghosh, Dipak | Deb, Argha | Patra, Kanchan Kumar | Sengupta, Rosalima | Bera, Sukumar

The presence of alpha emitting radionuclides in the environment assumes importance since they are found to be carcinogenic. This paper reports the results of an exhaustive and systematic measurement of alpha radioactivity using solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD) in drinking water in different parts of India covering the entire Ganges Basin - West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where arsenic contamination is severe. The alpha activity in the samples was found in the range of 8 to 800 Bq/l in West Bengal, 90 to 1,000 Bq/l in Uttar Pradesh and 60 to 1,000 Bq/l in Bihar - much higher alpha activity value than MCL value given by US EPA. The concentration of alpha activity has a positive correlation with that of arsenic.

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