THE SELENIUM SOLUTION
Julian Spallholz, Ph.D., is working to solve the problem of arsenic poisoning from contaminated drinking water of Bangladesh by using selenium.
Written by Courtney Kriewald
Have you ever watched a pot of water boil? Despite the cliche, there is actually a lot going on. As the water heats up, tiny bubbles begin to rise to the top, a signal that the water is close to boiling point.
Well, just as water sends signals that something is about to happen, there are lots of signals that a health crisis in Bangladesh is about to hit boiling point -- and Julian Spallholz is trying to stop it. Spallholz, Ph.D., a biochemist and professor of education and nutrition at Texas Tech University, is working to help solve the problem of arsenic contamination in the drinking water of Bangladesh. Although countries all over the world, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Australia, face the problem of arsenic contamination on a limited basis, no where is it presently known to be more severe and affecting more people than in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is a country in southern Asia bordered by India, Burma and the Bay of Bengal. The country, about the size of Wisconsin (144,000 square kilometers), has a population of approximately 127 million, making Bangladesh the most densely populated country in the world (approximately 883 people per square kilometer, compared to approximately 28 people per square kilometer in the United States).
Bangladesh, also one of the world's poorest countries, has a history of problematic drinking water. Because 230 rivers cut across the country, one would think that surface water would be the best option for clean drinking water. However, during the country's monsoon season when the entire country is flooded, the surface water becomes contaminated with industrial waste from factories, as well as human and animal waste. Consumption of the contaminated surface water results in a wide variety of diseases, including cholera and dysentery, which is especially detrimental to children.
The high number of deaths from water-born diseases, especially the high infant mortality rate, spurred the government of Bangladesh and international agencies, such as the World Bank and the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), to take measures to provide the Bangladeshi people with biologically non-contaminated drinking water.
Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing into the 1980s, the Bangladeshi government and the international agencies worked to provide clean drinking water by tapping into underground aquifers by drilling tube wells. Initially, the government of Bangladesh installed approximately 4 million tube wells, but then private citizens began installing their own. It is estimated that another 7 million tube wells were privately drilled, bringing the estimated number of tube wells in Bangladesh to 11 million.
The campaign to wean people away from drinking surface water was so successful it was estimated that 97 percent of the population had safe drinking water from tube wells. Furthermore, cases of water-born diseases began to decline, according to the Harvard Arsenic Web site project phys4.harvard.edu/~wilson/arsenic_project_introduction.html).
However, the solution to one health problem, the tube wells, wound up causing another health problem -- arsenic poisoning. Naturally occurring mineral deposits of arsenic were hidden beneath the surface soil of the numerous river deltas. When the tube wells were installed, many of the wells tapped into the arsenic deposits, thus contaminating the well water supply.
Arsenicosis, or arsenic poisoning, causes a break up of the skin known as keratosis and alternating layers of dark and light pigmentation -- hyperpigmentation and hypopigmentation, respectively -- on the hands and feet. Skin pigmentation occurs only after several years of low level exposure to arsenic. After a dozen years of exposure, skin cancers may begin to appear. Following 20 to 30 years of exposure, cancers of the lungs, bladder, kidneys and liver are likely.
A survey completed in 1999 of 500 villages, sponsored by the government of Bangladesh and conducted by the Dhaka Community Hospital, tested 62,782 tube wells for arsenic. Fifty-two percent of the wells tested positive. However, the 500 villages surveyed are only 0.6 percent of the total number of villages in Bangladesh.
With 97 percent of the Bangladeshi population drinking from tube wells and with an estimated 50 percent of the wells contaminated with toxic levels of arsenic, the anticipated health crisis is enormous, potentially affecting 80 million people. And now, as Julian Spallholz can attest to, there are signals rising to the top, indicating the health crisis is near boiling point.
A recent Dhaka Community Hospital survey found 2,327 patients with visible signs of arsenicosis. There were another 459,833 villagers who drank from contaminated wells who did not yet show signs of arsenic poisoning. But it takes years for the symptoms of arsenicosis to appear. Again, with almost the entire population relying on tube wells for clean water, a large-scale health crisis appears unavoidable.
Julian Spallholz, Ph.D.
Spallholz became involved in solving the problem of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh by voluntarily plunging himself into the problem after watching a PBS documentary on the country of Bangladesh and the issue of arsenic poisoning in February 1999.
"I'm sitting there hearing about this arsenic problem and I said to myself, That shouldn't be a problem," Spallholz said.
Spallholz believed that he knew of a solution to the problem because for most of his career, he has studied the element selenium, a critical trace element primarily associated with animal protein. One of the things he learned from his 34 years of research is that selenium, in the right proportion, counteracts the effects of arsenic.
"In poor, rural areas, the biggest problem other than just getting enough calories is just getting enough high-quality protein," Spallholz said. "Knowing about the geology, high rainfall, acidic soils and a likely lousy protein diet in rural Bangladesh, where the arsenicosis was occurring, I suspected that many of these people have a very low selenium intake."
Spallholz was so confident in his knowledge that he immediately began contacting the agencies involved to get them to listen to his idea.
"I started to call around and e-mail people, just trying to get anyone to listen to me so that we could help these people," Spallholz said.
Spallholz knew that time was critical, but he found it difficult to get anyone to listen to him.
"The first cases of human arsenicosis occurred in 1993, but the wells were drilled in the 1980s," Spallholz said. "I knew that with such a large population, the problem could be massive."
Nearly seven months after he first saw the PBS documentary, Spallholz found someone willing to entertain his idea and who could help him. After contacting a private donor who was interested in funding his research, Spallholz -- assisted by Mallory Boylan, Ph.D., associate professor of nutrition at Texas Tech, and Suzanne Henderson, a graduate student in the department of nutrition -- began developing an animal model on the relationship between arsenic toxicity in water, just like in Bangladesh, and adding selenium to the diet.
What he has discovered to date leads Spallholz to believe that providing the Bangladeshi people with a nutritional supplement containing selenium to counteract the effects of the arsenic-contaminated drinking water could help remedy the problem of low-level arsenic ingestion. He believes that a supplement is feasible as well as inexpensive.
Spallholz presented his proposal for a selenium supplement at the Third International Conference on Arsenic in Bangladesh in May 2000 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He continues to work with the international agencies involved about the possibilities of providing the people of Bangladesh a supplement containing selenium.
But Spallholz sees nutritional supplements as a short-term solution. He believes the ideal solution would be a recyclable filter that removes arsenic at the well head. The filter-bound arsenic could then be removed from the filter and used for commercial purposes, including pressurized wood treatments, defoliating cotton and in electronics.
"Arsenic has a huge commercial value, and if there was a recyclable filter, Bangladesh could use the arsenic to provide much-needed income to the country," Spallholz said. "The sales from the arsenic for commercial uses could pay for the remediation of the water."
Although Spallholz has yet to do any work on developing an arsenic filter, he has helped develop the technology for the use of selenium.
So as the problem of arsenic poisoning nears its boiling point, Julian Spallholz is working furiously to find the right balance of selenium to stop the effects of arsenic toxicity from drinking water. He is enthusiastic and hopeful about his work and expects soon that he will be able to help turn the heat off of a potentially massive health crisis in an already impoverished place.
Story produced by the Office of Communications and Marketing
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