Objective To survey tube wells and households in Araihazar upazila, Bangladesh, to set the stage for a long-term epidemiological study of the consequences of chronic arsenic exposure.Methods Water samples and household data were collected over a period of 4 months in 2000 from 4997 contiguous tube wells serving a population of 55 000, the position of each well being determined to within 30 m using Global Positioning System receivers. Arsenic concentrations were determined by graphite-furnace atomic-absorption spectrometry. In addition, groundwater samples collected every 2 weeks for an entire year from six tube wells were analysed for arsenic by high-resolution inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.
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