BANGLADESHI communities that are already being poisoned by arsenic-tainted groundwater are facing an appalling new threat. Their rice and vegetables are also laced with high levels of arsenic.
The health effects of eating such tainted food are not yet known, but the ramifications could be enormous. The WHO says contaminated drinking water alone could kill 270,000 Bangladeshis over the next decade.
In a terrible irony, arsenic entered the Bangladeshi water supply when UNICEF and other international agencies sank millions of tube wells to provide clean drinking water. But the wells tapped into groundwater contaminated by arsenic from sedimentary deposits…
