Mackenize Morris
PHIL: 325
Arsenic Contamination
In 1993 confirmed arsenic contamination was discovered in the main water supply and a
mass poisoning was documented stemming from the underground aquafers of Bangladesh. The
contamination was caused by naturally occurring arsenic compounds; the measurements for the
water supply was above the 50 micrograms per liter that the Bangladesh’s Department of Health
and much greater than The World Health Organization’s 10 micrograms per liter. [2] This mass
contamination of a large population’s water supply originally began when the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) teamed up with the Department of Health to provide safe drinking
water to the population of Bangladesh. Their idea was to install tube wells, and while this
