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Arsenic (As) contamination: A major risk factor in Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region of China
Environmental Pollution xxx (2015) 1e2
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Environmental Pollution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envpol
Commentary
Arsenic (As) contamination: A major risk factor in Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region of China Santosh Kumar Karn a, b, * a b
Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology, Raipur 492001, CG, India Bioremediation Laboratory, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Received 5 May 2015 Accepted 7 May 2015 Available online xxx
Xinjiang province is one of the unhealthiest region in China due to natural as well as man-made activities. Here soil and water having high concentration of multi-metals especially arsenic content in the soil and water is a major threat to the peoples which suffers regularly from arsenic contamination therefore multiple diseases and illness is the common phenomenon. Therefore this area urgently needed a comprehensive assessment by governmental and nongovernmental organization to cope up with this problem and find a miracle solution which can remediate soil and water quality. There peoples suffers much for the above mentioned reason. © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Industries Xinjiang Mine tailing Metal contamination Arsenic Peoples
1. Introduction In China minority peoples have the same official/formal rights as Han Chinese (majority peoples). Xinjiang is a one of the unhealthiest and largest region of China where human health is major concerning issue mainly in ethnic groups such as Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongol and Kirgiz. Majority of ethnic population is Uyghur. This region bordered with eight neighbouring countries i.e. Afghanistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, and Tajikistan, plays an important role to secure economic security by contributing to self-sufficiency in natural gas, domestic oil and in coal production in this area. Life expectancy for Uyghur's is averages 63 years, according to the region's Ministry of Health, whereas other province claims 70 years. From 2001, an estimated 500 Han Chinese arrived each week in Xinjiang from other part of China. Due to mining activities in this region such as Coal mines, Gold mines, Copper mine, Uranium mines affected the soil quality very badly due to high level of different kind of metals in the soil. This mining activity does not help even in the economical status of the native Uyghur people in this area instead they decreased the quality of life and make them unhealthy due to presence of toxic metal in high concentration in the soil. Recently Geological worker
* Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology, Raipur G. E. Road, Raipur 492010, India. E-mail address: [email protected].
discovered a large gold mine area in this region with estimated gold reserves of about 53 tonnes and other copper mines reserves is about 32 tones. On an average about 10 tons of gold estimated or extracted in this area in the recent year, this mine tailing is major human activities in this area for ground water arsenic (As) poisoning, although this area rocks also having natural high level As concentration. 2. Presentation of the concerns In the present time urban development, industrial establishment and its activities is increasingly tremendously leading to deterioration of ecological environment, public health significantly in this region. Maximum concentration of As in groundwater of Xinjiang was measured 830 mg/L (Wen et al., 2013). As per world health organization (WHO) guideline As concentration below 10 mg/L are considered within the safe limit. But it looks impossible to control the As concentration into the safe limit due to the nonavailability of treatment facility and proper protective measurement into this area. Arsenic exposure to human has shown various kinds of internal cancer, pigmentation, keratosis and other related diseases Smith et al. (1992). Arsenic poisoning even deactivate the important enzyme involved in DNA replication, DNA repair, Phospholipid synthesis and also inhibit the energy flow (Hughes, 2002; Hartwig et al., 1997; Lynn et al., 1997). Arsenic also has been linked to reduced intellectual function in exposed children (IPCS, 2001).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2015.05.005 0269-7491/© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Please cite this article in press as: Karn, S.K., Arsenic (As) contamination: A major risk factor in Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region of China, Environmental Pollution (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2015.05.005
2
S.K. Karn / Environmental Pollution xxx (2015) 1e2
The statistical risk model developed by Luis et al. (2013) showed large area of Tarim basin has been potentially affected by groundwater arsenic contamination respect to other region of china. And suggested a population distribution map and estimated about 19.6 million people live in high risk of arsenic mainly belonging to Xinjiang and some other parts of China like Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu peoples consuming high arsenic level in the drinking water above than the safe limit as per WHO guidelines. In this region peoples adapted to consume the contaminated water therefore illness is a normal phenomenon and possibility that peoples belongs to this region may have specific adaption to the arsenic or changes in the specific or particular gene because adaption drives change in the genome. Recently Schlebusch et al. (2015) found that peoples from northern Argentinean Andes with efficient methylation and excretion of the major metabolite dimethylated arsenic and a less excretion of the highly toxic monomethylated metabolite. It was observed by genotyped women from this population for 4,301,332 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and found a strong association between the AS3MT (arsenic [þ3 oxidation state] methyltransferase) gene and mono and dimethylated arsenic in urine, suggesting that AS3MT functions as the major gene for arsenic metabolism in humans. Now the peoples in this area become habituated for the various kinds of contamination, accidents and finally death of many peoples. Government official to always denies real situation or condition about environment health and public health of Xinjiang to maintain stable economic trends. Therefore in this region there is need of joint mechanism between Governmental, nongovernmental organization and industries peoples to perform systematic research into this area and assess risk management, develop the treatment facilities, ecological restoration, and to develop related water treatment and purification technologies. Previous research conducted by Liu et al. (2007) found the air and soil quality of the Urumqi (capital city of Xinjiang province) is one of most polluted city keep under the category of most polluted city in the world. In 1994 the WHO also keeps this city as fourth most polluted city in the world. This view point is based on the observation and social problem faced by the local peoples. Hope this article will make more attention to the scientific community and environmentalist to observe the real condition/situation and to make some contribution in this area (Xinjiang). This is brief observation and comment about the current situation in Xinjiang
from my recent stay from April 2012 to February 2014 about the peoples and environmental conditions. There peoples suffers much for the above mentioned reason. 3. Conclusion Finally I would like focus that this region becomes hotspot to face with multi-metal problem especially arsenic (As) after 1960. Number As affected peoples increasing year by year. As poising due to drinking water and farmland soil having increased concentration therefore it is needful to take precautionary measurement and develop watershed management use of rainwater harvesting, pond sand filtration, low cost domestic filtration systems, and arsenic removal technologies. As this region play important role to secure economic security by contributing to self-sufficiency in natural gas, domestic oil and in coal production in this area. Acknowledgement My programme was supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences Fellowships for Young International Scientists (No. 2011Y2ZB06). References Hartwig, A., Groblinghoff, U.D., Beyersmann, D., Nataranjan, A.T., Filon, R., Mullenders, L.H.F., 1997. Interaction of arsenic (III) with nucleotide excision repair in UV-irradiated human fibroblasts. Carcinogenesis 18, 399e405. Hughes, M.F., 2002. Arsenic toxicity and its potential mechanisms of action. Toxicol. Lett. 133, 1e16. IPCS, 2001. Environmental health criteria on arsenic and arsenic compounds. In: Environmental Health Criteria Series, Arsenic and Arsenic Compounds, 2nd, vol. 521. WHO, Geneva. No. 224. Liu, Y.Y., Liu, M., Liu, H.F., 2007. Distribution of heavy metal in urban soil of Urumqi City. Arid. Land Geogr. 30, 120e123. Luis, Rodriguez-Lado, Sun, G., Berg, M., Zhang, Q., Xue, H., Zheng, Q., Johnson, C.A., 2013. Groundwater. Arsenic contamination throughout China. Science 341, 866e868. Lynn, S., Lai, H.T., Gurr, J.R., Jan, K.Y., 1997. Arsenite retards DNA break rejoining by inhibiting DNA ligation. Mutagenesis 12, 353e358. €m, K., Vahter, M., Jakobsson, M., Schlebusch, Carina M., Gattepaille, Lucie, M., Engstro Broberg, K., 2015. Human adaptation to arsenic-rich environments. Mol. Biol. Evol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msv046. Smith, A.H., Hopenhayn-Rich, C., Bates, M.N., Goeden, H.M., Hertz-Picciotto, I., Duggan, H.M., Wood, R., Kosnett, M.J., Smith, M.T., 1992. Cancer risks from arsenic in drinking water. Environ. Health Perspect. 97, 259e267. Wen, D., Zhang, F., Zhang, E., Wang, C., Han, S., Zheng, Y., 2013. Arsenic, fluoride and iodine in groundwater of China. J. Geochem. Explor. 135, 1e21.
Please cite this article in press as: Karn, S.K., Arsenic (As) contamination: A major risk factor in Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region of China, Environmental Pollution (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2015.05.005
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Environmental Pollution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envpol
Commentary
Arsenic (As) contamination: A major risk factor in Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region of China Santosh Kumar Karn a, b, * a b
Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology, Raipur 492001, CG, India Bioremediation Laboratory, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history: Received 5 May 2015 Accepted 7 May 2015 Available online xxx
Xinjiang province is one of the unhealthiest region in China due to natural as well as man-made activities. Here soil and water having high concentration of multi-metals especially arsenic content in the soil and water is a major threat to the peoples which suffers regularly from arsenic contamination therefore multiple diseases and illness is the common phenomenon. Therefore this area urgently needed a comprehensive assessment by governmental and nongovernmental organization to cope up with this problem and find a miracle solution which can remediate soil and water quality. There peoples suffers much for the above mentioned reason. © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Industries Xinjiang Mine tailing Metal contamination Arsenic Peoples
1. Introduction In China minority peoples have the same official/formal rights as Han Chinese (majority peoples). Xinjiang is a one of the unhealthiest and largest region of China where human health is major concerning issue mainly in ethnic groups such as Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongol and Kirgiz. Majority of ethnic population is Uyghur. This region bordered with eight neighbouring countries i.e. Afghanistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, and Tajikistan, plays an important role to secure economic security by contributing to self-sufficiency in natural gas, domestic oil and in coal production in this area. Life expectancy for Uyghur's is averages 63 years, according to the region's Ministry of Health, whereas other province claims 70 years. From 2001, an estimated 500 Han Chinese arrived each week in Xinjiang from other part of China. Due to mining activities in this region such as Coal mines, Gold mines, Copper mine, Uranium mines affected the soil quality very badly due to high level of different kind of metals in the soil. This mining activity does not help even in the economical status of the native Uyghur people in this area instead they decreased the quality of life and make them unhealthy due to presence of toxic metal in high concentration in the soil. Recently Geological worker
* Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology, Raipur G. E. Road, Raipur 492010, India. E-mail address: [email protected].
discovered a large gold mine area in this region with estimated gold reserves of about 53 tonnes and other copper mines reserves is about 32 tones. On an average about 10 tons of gold estimated or extracted in this area in the recent year, this mine tailing is major human activities in this area for ground water arsenic (As) poisoning, although this area rocks also having natural high level As concentration. 2. Presentation of the concerns In the present time urban development, industrial establishment and its activities is increasingly tremendously leading to deterioration of ecological environment, public health significantly in this region. Maximum concentration of As in groundwater of Xinjiang was measured 830 mg/L (Wen et al., 2013). As per world health organization (WHO) guideline As concentration below 10 mg/L are considered within the safe limit. But it looks impossible to control the As concentration into the safe limit due to the nonavailability of treatment facility and proper protective measurement into this area. Arsenic exposure to human has shown various kinds of internal cancer, pigmentation, keratosis and other related diseases Smith et al. (1992). Arsenic poisoning even deactivate the important enzyme involved in DNA replication, DNA repair, Phospholipid synthesis and also inhibit the energy flow (Hughes, 2002; Hartwig et al., 1997; Lynn et al., 1997). Arsenic also has been linked to reduced intellectual function in exposed children (IPCS, 2001).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2015.05.005 0269-7491/© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Please cite this article in press as: Karn, S.K., Arsenic (As) contamination: A major risk factor in Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region of China, Environmental Pollution (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2015.05.005
2
S.K. Karn / Environmental Pollution xxx (2015) 1e2
The statistical risk model developed by Luis et al. (2013) showed large area of Tarim basin has been potentially affected by groundwater arsenic contamination respect to other region of china. And suggested a population distribution map and estimated about 19.6 million people live in high risk of arsenic mainly belonging to Xinjiang and some other parts of China like Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu peoples consuming high arsenic level in the drinking water above than the safe limit as per WHO guidelines. In this region peoples adapted to consume the contaminated water therefore illness is a normal phenomenon and possibility that peoples belongs to this region may have specific adaption to the arsenic or changes in the specific or particular gene because adaption drives change in the genome. Recently Schlebusch et al. (2015) found that peoples from northern Argentinean Andes with efficient methylation and excretion of the major metabolite dimethylated arsenic and a less excretion of the highly toxic monomethylated metabolite. It was observed by genotyped women from this population for 4,301,332 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and found a strong association between the AS3MT (arsenic [þ3 oxidation state] methyltransferase) gene and mono and dimethylated arsenic in urine, suggesting that AS3MT functions as the major gene for arsenic metabolism in humans. Now the peoples in this area become habituated for the various kinds of contamination, accidents and finally death of many peoples. Government official to always denies real situation or condition about environment health and public health of Xinjiang to maintain stable economic trends. Therefore in this region there is need of joint mechanism between Governmental, nongovernmental organization and industries peoples to perform systematic research into this area and assess risk management, develop the treatment facilities, ecological restoration, and to develop related water treatment and purification technologies. Previous research conducted by Liu et al. (2007) found the air and soil quality of the Urumqi (capital city of Xinjiang province) is one of most polluted city keep under the category of most polluted city in the world. In 1994 the WHO also keeps this city as fourth most polluted city in the world. This view point is based on the observation and social problem faced by the local peoples. Hope this article will make more attention to the scientific community and environmentalist to observe the real condition/situation and to make some contribution in this area (Xinjiang). This is brief observation and comment about the current situation in Xinjiang
from my recent stay from April 2012 to February 2014 about the peoples and environmental conditions. There peoples suffers much for the above mentioned reason. 3. Conclusion Finally I would like focus that this region becomes hotspot to face with multi-metal problem especially arsenic (As) after 1960. Number As affected peoples increasing year by year. As poising due to drinking water and farmland soil having increased concentration therefore it is needful to take precautionary measurement and develop watershed management use of rainwater harvesting, pond sand filtration, low cost domestic filtration systems, and arsenic removal technologies. As this region play important role to secure economic security by contributing to self-sufficiency in natural gas, domestic oil and in coal production in this area. Acknowledgement My programme was supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences Fellowships for Young International Scientists (No. 2011Y2ZB06). References Hartwig, A., Groblinghoff, U.D., Beyersmann, D., Nataranjan, A.T., Filon, R., Mullenders, L.H.F., 1997. Interaction of arsenic (III) with nucleotide excision repair in UV-irradiated human fibroblasts. Carcinogenesis 18, 399e405. Hughes, M.F., 2002. Arsenic toxicity and its potential mechanisms of action. Toxicol. Lett. 133, 1e16. IPCS, 2001. Environmental health criteria on arsenic and arsenic compounds. In: Environmental Health Criteria Series, Arsenic and Arsenic Compounds, 2nd, vol. 521. WHO, Geneva. No. 224. Liu, Y.Y., Liu, M., Liu, H.F., 2007. Distribution of heavy metal in urban soil of Urumqi City. Arid. Land Geogr. 30, 120e123. Luis, Rodriguez-Lado, Sun, G., Berg, M., Zhang, Q., Xue, H., Zheng, Q., Johnson, C.A., 2013. Groundwater. Arsenic contamination throughout China. Science 341, 866e868. Lynn, S., Lai, H.T., Gurr, J.R., Jan, K.Y., 1997. Arsenite retards DNA break rejoining by inhibiting DNA ligation. Mutagenesis 12, 353e358. €m, K., Vahter, M., Jakobsson, M., Schlebusch, Carina M., Gattepaille, Lucie, M., Engstro Broberg, K., 2015. Human adaptation to arsenic-rich environments. Mol. Biol. Evol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msv046. Smith, A.H., Hopenhayn-Rich, C., Bates, M.N., Goeden, H.M., Hertz-Picciotto, I., Duggan, H.M., Wood, R., Kosnett, M.J., Smith, M.T., 1992. Cancer risks from arsenic in drinking water. Environ. Health Perspect. 97, 259e267. Wen, D., Zhang, F., Zhang, E., Wang, C., Han, S., Zheng, Y., 2013. Arsenic, fluoride and iodine in groundwater of China. J. Geochem. Explor. 135, 1e21.
Please cite this article in press as: Karn, S.K., Arsenic (As) contamination: A major risk factor in Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region of China, Environmental Pollution (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2015.05.005