scholarly journals Inequitable allocation of deep community wells for reducing arsenic exposure in Bangladesh

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. van Geen ◽  
K. M. Ahmed ◽  
E. B. Ahmed ◽  
I. Choudhury ◽  
M. R. Mozumder ◽  
...  

Community wells that extend deeper than most private wells are crucial for reducing exposure to groundwater arsenic (As) in rural Bangladesh. This study evaluates the impact on access to safe drinking water of 915 such intermediate (90–150 m) and deep (>150 m) wells across a 180 km2 area where a total of 48,790 tubewells were tested with field kits in 2012–13. Half the shallow private wells meet the Bangladesh standard of 50 μg/L for As in drinking water, whereas 92% of the intermediate and deep wells meet the more restrictive World Health Organization guideline for As in drinking water of 10 μg/L. As a proxy for water access, distance calculations show that 29% of shallow wells with >50 μg/L As are located within walking distance (100 m) of at least one of the 915 intermediate or deep wells. Similar calculations for a hypothetical more even distribution of deep wells show that 74% of shallow wells with >50 μg/L As could have been located within 100 m of the same number of deep wells. These observations and well-usage data suggest that community wells in Araihazar, and probably elsewhere in Bangladesh, were not optimally allocated by the government because of elite capture.

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 1458-1464
Author(s):  
Sweta Kamboj ◽  
Rohit Kamboj ◽  
Shikha Kamboj ◽  
Kumar Guarve ◽  
Rohit Dutt

Background: In the 1960s, the human coronavirus was designated, which is responsible for the upper respiratory tract disease in children. Back in 2003, mainly 5 new coronaviruses were recognized. This study directly pursues to govern knowledge, attitude and practice of viral and droplet infection isolation safeguard among the researchers during the outbreak of the COVID-19. Introduction: Coronavirus is a proteinaceous and infectious pathogen. It is an etiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Coronavirus, appeared in China from the seafood and poultry market last year, which has spread in various countries, and has caused several deaths. Methods: The literature data has been taken from different search platforms like PubMed, Science Direct, Embase, Web of Science, who.int portal and complied. Results: Corona virology study will be more advanced and outstanding in recent years. COVID-19 epidemic is a threatening reminder not solely for one country but all over the universe. Conclusion: In this review article, we encapsulated the pathogenesis, geographical spread of coronavirus worldwide, also discussed the perspective of diagnosis, effective treatment, and primary recommendations by the World Health Organization, and guidelines of the government to slow down the impact of the virus are also optimistic, efficacious and obliging for the public health. However, it will take a prolonged time in the future to overcome this epidemic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-34
Author(s):  
Vasilios Pergialiotis ◽  
Dimitrios Loutradis

Nitrate is a nitrogen oxoanion formed by loss of a proton from nitric acid. It is an important source of nitrogen which is essential for protein formation. Regular levels of nitrate in the environment do not exceed 2-5 mg/L. Fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides increase, however, the amount of nitrate in drinking water. In 2011 the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a revised document on nitrate and nitrite levels in drinking water to help establish a common guideline that will help countries. To date, the majority of guidelines on drinking water quality that is directly related to nitrate levels are based in its toxic effect in infants and neonates (primarily the occurrence of methemoglobinemia) and suggest as an arbitrary cut-off the existence of less than 10 mg/L as a measure of safety. Exposure to nitrate levels has been linked to adverse neurodevelopmental effects, fetal malformations and several forms of cancer. However, the associations remain scarce in several fields as the majority of available data is retrieved from articles that investigate the impact of nitrosatable drugs, rather than environmental exposure. In Greece, seven vulnerable regions have been recently identified, following the country`s referral to the Court of Justice by Commission. The aim of the present article is to summarize current evidence and provide recommendations for clinical practice and future research in the field.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
R Singh ◽  
K Sharma

Abstract Background World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020 and characterized the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. India enacted such measures early on for effective mitigation and suppression to reduce community transmission, including an onerous national lockdown. The impact of the health system governance is quite apparent among all stakeholders including the public in such emergency contexts. Methods We compiled the daily data on the number of COVID-19 cases, recoveries and deaths from January 30th until June 16th, 2020. Different stages were categorized from post PHEIC declaration (pre-lockdown) phase to lockdown phases and unlocking phase as implemented. The several measures adopted by the national government were structured in four broad categories as Governance and socioeconomic, travel restrictions, lockdown and public health measures. These measures were compared during each phase. Results It was revealed that while the cases are rising the phased restrictions has helped in delaying the peak and remarkably interrupted the rate of transmission. The national average doubling rate was 3 days at the beginning which improved to 22 days. The basic reproduction number remained close to 1 during the last week of lockdown. However, the initial interruption of needed aid and technical support had negative social and economic impacts on the affected population. Conclusions As the situation abates following the measures adopted by the government, an articulate strategy of unlocking through increased testing and prompt isolation needs to be developed for more effective reduction and protecting the livelihoods allowing to further relax the lockdown measures. Key messages There is need for the local government to consider a strategic easing of the lockdown for protecting the rights of the most affected population. As the transmission rates are low, the easing of lockdown can be benefited from improved testing and prompt isolation.


2022 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edison D. Macusi ◽  
Stefenie Katrin V. Siblos ◽  
Martha Elena Betancourt ◽  
Erna S. Macusi ◽  
Michael N. Calderon ◽  
...  

COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in 2020 with countries putting up several measures to mitigate and flatten the curve of hospitalizations and death from travel bans to home confinements and local lockdowns. This pandemic created health and economic crises, leading to increased incidence of poverty and food crisis especially on both agriculture and the fisheries in many developing nations including the Philippines. The specific objectives of this study were to assess the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the catch per unit effort (CPUE) of small-scale fishers and to determine what factors could influence the volume of their catch during this time of pandemic. Moreover, this also investigated the impact of COVID-19 restrictions to fishers and their families. To do that we surveyed N = 200 small-scale fishers around the Davao gulf using semi-structured questionnaire and inquired on the impact of the COVID-19 to their fishing operation, catch, fishing costs, and their families. The collected socioeconomic variables, including emotional responses to the pandemic were then related to the CPUE and the volume of catch. The results show that fishers were highly affected by the pandemic due to the lockdown policy imposed in the fishing villages during the earlier phases of restrictions by the government. Fishers were affected in terms of the volume of their catch, also fishing costs, and emotionally as they were also frustrated due to the impacts of the hard lockdown. The restricted fishing access was found to have important and major set-back on the fishing operations of fishers and the same was experienced also by the middlemen given the low fish price and reduced mobility of the fish traders. COVID-19 also impacted the fishers, and their families through lack of mobility, food inadequacy, travel restrictions and their children’s education.


COVID-19 emerged in China in December. The World Health Organization declares this virus as Global Disaster in March. The coronavirus has affected the social, economic, political dimensions of the nations globally. In this study, the authors consider the impact of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on the different activities of primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors of the Indian Economy and various policies and reforms have been taken by the government. The secondary data is collected to put down this literature. Each sector of the economy faces chaos due to coronavirus. Migrant workers or laborers go to their state in the lockdown, a ban on materials, electronics imported from china, supply chain disruption, disturbance in the cash flow are some of the majors' reasons that lead to the uncertainty in different sectors. A fund issued by the Government can be utilized effectively to give benefits to employees, workers, farmers, organizations, and industries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-537
Author(s):  
ABDULRASHID YUSUF ◽  
Abdurrahman Nuraddeen

The study involved the analysis of some selected heavy metals in drinking water consumed within Katsina Metropolis. The water samples were collected from Ajiwa dam raw water, taps, wells, boreholes, and sachet waters and the concentration of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Cr, Co, and Ni), was determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). The results obtained from the water analysis indicate that cadmium was not found in all the water samples. The concentrations range for lead were  (6.222-109.63)µg/L with maximum concentration value of 109.63 µg/L in Ajiwa dam raw water, above the World Health Organization (WHO) limit, nickel (0.72-6.99)µg/L with maximum concentration value of 6.99 µg/L in borehole water, within WHO limit, chromium (36-72)µg/L with maximum concentration value of 72 µg/L in well water, above WHO limit, cobalt  (4.758-9.516) µg/L with maximum concentration value of 9.516 µg/L in well water, within WHO limit. The results indicate that most of the concentrations of the heavy metals determined were within the WHO limit, except for chromium in well water which may arises from the Government activities of money recycling and incineration of old bank notes which does not affect other water sources in the area and lead in Ajiwa dam raw water which was further removed through water treatment processes. Moreover, the Analysis of Variance  (ANOVA)  indicate no significant difference in the means of the heavy metals concentrations in all the water samples analyzed, and this may be due to the same physicochemical factors and limited industrial activities in the study area


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (4B) ◽  
pp. 240
Author(s):  
Phan Nhu Nguyet

The communities within Binh Dinh province in the Central Vietnam are reliant on groundwater as their primary supply of domestic and potable water. Meanwhile, it is seriously contaminated with fluoride that causing fluorosis problem for people. This study aims to investigate the link between severity of dental fluorosis rate in a population and fluoride concentration in drinking water in Tay Son area. A total of 50 well-water samples were collected and 220 people were surveyed by questionnaire from 50 households at 3 villages: Tay Phu, Binh Tuong, Tay Giang of Tay Son district, Binh Dinh province, Vietnam. The quantitative assessment of severity of dental fluorosis was done by calculating the Community Fluorosis Index (CFI) using Dean’s classification. Result of this study showed that fluoride concentration in well-water varied from 0.31 mg/L to 7.69 mg/L (mean 2.66 mg/L, SD: 2.18 mg/L) with 70 % of well-water samples above the maximum permissible limit of 1.5 mg/L of World Health Organization (WHO) drinking water standard. 100 % people surveyed was suffered from dental fluorosis and Dean scale of dental fluorosis ranged from level 2 to level 5. CFI varied from 3.45 to 4.13 above limit value (0.6). The community seriously suffered from dental fluorosis. The fluoride concentrations and Dean Index have high correlation (r = 0.580, p < 0.0001). Based upon results of this study, it is recommended that the government should supply drinking water with appropriate fluoride content for this community.


Author(s):  
Anjana Jain

According to the latest report of the World Health Organization, 7 lakh 83 thousand people die due to polluted water every year in India. The main challenge of the Government of India is to provide clean water to the public. Therefore, in the study presented, an attempt has been made to know why there is pollution of drinking water, what types of diseases are caused by this polluted water, d. An attempt has been made to know its negative effects and pure drinking water treatment. The data and facts have been compiled on a secondary basis. विष्व स्वास्थ संगठन की ताजा रिपोर्ट के अनुसार भारत में प्रतिवर्ष 7 लाख 83 हजार लोग प्रदूषित जल की वजह से मरते है। जनता को साफ पानी पहुचाना भारत सरकार की मुख्य चुनौति है। अतः प्रस्तुत अध्ययन में यह जानने का प्रयास किया गया है कि पेयजल प्रदुषण क्यों होता है घ् इस प्रदूषित जल से किस प्रकार की बीमारियाँ उत्पन्न होती है घ् इसके नकारात्मक प्रभाव एवं शुध्द पेयजल उपचार को जानने का प्रयास किया गया है। आंकड़ो व तथ्यों का संकलन द्वितीयक आधार पर किया गया है।


Author(s):  
Oluwasegun Micheal Ibrahim ◽  
Damilola Daniel Ekundayo

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, to be a pandemic. Since the declaration, Nigeria economy has been greatly impacted thus resulting in a recession. This paper considers a couple of misconceptions among Nigerian people in the COVID-19 pandemic era thereby causing the spread of the novel virus and hence making the situation difficult for the government to handle. In particular, we discuss the first and second waves of the pandemic as it affects the Nigerian people. The impact of the pandemic on animals and the role of mathematical epidemiologists in combatting the spread is discussed herein. We give some recommendations that could be adopted by the government and the good people of Nigeria to reduce the further spread of the virus.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 845-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. H. Akuno ◽  
G. Nocella ◽  
E. P. Milia ◽  
L. Gutierrez

Abstract The relationship between naturally fluoridated groundwater and dental fluorosis has received large attention from researchers around the world. Despite recognition that several factors influence this relationship, there is a lack of systematic studies analyzing the heterogeneity of these results. To fill such a gap, this study performs a systematic review and meta-analysis to understand which factors influence this relationship and how. Selected studies were sampled between 2007 and 2017 from Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus using keywords and Boolean operators. Results of the systematic review show that dental fluorosis affects individuals of all ages, with the highest prevalence below 11, while the impact of other factors (gender, environmental conditions, diet and dental caries) was inconclusive. Meta-regression analysis, based on information collected through systematic review, indicates that both fluoride in drinking water and temperature influence dental fluorosis significantly and that these studies might be affected by publication bias. Findings show that fluoride negatively affects people's health in less developed countries. The conclusions discuss policy tools and technological innovations that could reduce fluoride levels below that of the World Health Organization (WHO) (&lt;1.5 mg/L).


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