Academic Research Journal of Nature and Public Health

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are emerging contaminants:Review and awareness

Shreya Chowdhury — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances(PFAS) have been a popular topic in the past few years. They are a category of “emerging contaminants'' because PFAS have been detected in the environment through environmental, industrial, and infrastructural sources and causes health problems.

Some sources of PFAS exposure include drinking contaminated municipal water or private well water, eating food grown in places that used or made PFAS, eating fish caught from water contaminated by PFAS, etc. In addition, they have been also found in some products like fast food containers/wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, pizza boxes, cleaning products, personal care products (shampoo, dental floss) and cosmetics (nail polish, eye makeup), etc.

These chemicals move fromcontaminated to non-contaminatedareas since they don’t break down. This leads to contamination of water and food that we eat which causes many health effects. According to many research articles, PFAS are linked to many health issues that could affect the immune function, thyroid function, liver disease, cancer, reproductive and developmental outcomes, etc. To avoid these health problems, we need to minimize PFAS by reducing the use of products that have PFAS in them, limiting levels of PFAS in drinking water, protecting our health after being in or around lakes and streams, and practicing safe gardening habits to lower the chance of exposing ourselves to PFAS.

Regarding what action we have taken against these chemicals, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified a “safe level” for six PFAS (PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFBS, HFPO-DA, and PFHxS), which are 4 ng/L, 4 ng/L, 10 ng/L, 2000 ng/L, 10 ng/L, and 9 ng/L, respectively, and some states of the United States of America (USA) created laws and/or banned the use of PFAS. Using these “safe levels,” I conducted my own research on roof-harvested rainwater and found that these contaminants were at a higher concentration than what is recommended by the EPA. The reasonfor this contamination couldbe due to the roofing materials when the roof-harvested rainwater is being collected.

In conclusion, it is important for us to regulate PFAS to avoid any future consequences of damaging our health and the environment.

Young generation is a boat for carrying and distributing the knowledge of science, health, and everything: How might they grow up?

Uttam K Chowdhury, Shreya Chowdhury — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The young generation is a driving force for family, society, nation, and the world. Bangladesh has a young population with ~34% that are aged 15 and younger.Globally, about 25 percent of the world is under 15 years of age, and the total world population estimated by the United Nations has exceeded eight billion in mid-November 2022.These huge numbers of the young generation must grow up properly.

UNCTrust organized two events (“Health Camp” and “Science Fair” in May 2022) in the villages of RamshilUnion under Kotalipara, Gopalganj, Bangladesh.It was remarkable that everyone, mainly the young generation, participated and completed their work according to the instructions,nicely.

Two hundred fifty-three people (166 females and 87 males) got their treatment, from ages 2 to 90 years old, under the UNCTrust Health Camp program. There were four groups based on their ages: I. Pediatric Group, PG (> 0 to 14 years); II. Young Group, YG (15 to 47 years); III. Middle Age Group, MAG (48 to 63 years); and IV. Elderly Group, EG (≥64 years) people. The major health problems of the participants in this program are asthma, blood pressure, and heart problems.The Pediatric Group was mainly suffering from asthma, in PG, 20% females but 64% males; YG, 57% females and 54% males; MAG, 50% females and 67% males; and EG, 14.81% females and 67% males are suffering due to asthma.Including all groups, the males are suffering more than the females with asthma.Specially, the males of the pediatric and elderly groups are suffering significantly more than the females of the same age group with this disease. But the females are suffering more than males with blood pressure.The elderly group (EG; specially females) has a significantly higher percentage (11%) of diabetic patients compared to the other age groups.

Almost 100% participants were vaccinated except pediatric group (PG). Most of the participants from YG, MAG, and EG received both doses 1 & 2. Males received more booster doses compared to the females of the same age group (24% vs 9%, respectively) in YG, but females received more booster doses compared to males of the same age group (36% vs. 20%, respectively) in MAG. The 73% of females and 81% of males of elderly group (EG) participants received doses 1 & 2, but 27% of females and 19% of males received booster doses. That means, more percent of females received booster doses compared to males in both MAG and EG.

In the science fair,hundredsof students that ranged from primary to high schooland general people from villages attended this fair. There were seventeen science projects displayed at the fair, and some of them were very impressive. The students improved their ideas through smart phones and the internet. Therefore, it is proved that if we use technology properly, then we can improve our knowledge and do the best things for the world. However, it is very important to bring up our kids properly.

The kid likes a small tree. A small tree, if we clean up the surroundings, put fertilizer, and give water regularly, it may or may not grow well. If we don’t put a fence around the tree, thenit can get damaged. If we don’t cut off the small branches, then it would be unhealthy. If we don’t put astick to support the tree, then it won’t be able to find its bright destiny. We also need to check the tree from time to time if we want it to grow properly. This also applies for a kid. A small kid does not know anything like a tree. We must prepare the environment for them to grow properly, improve their knowledge to protect themselves for growing healthy, help them to find their destiny, and check on them from time to time on how they are growing up for a certain period.

In conclusion,kids are studying many subjects/courses at their school and college levels, and it would be best if there is an additional subject like “Helps: How to Grow Up!” in every class for every student from primary to high school, maybe college level too.

Some request to young generation/kids and parents:* Think before starting and think after finishing, * Be honest, responsible, respectful, and simple, * Be a good human being, * If we respect others, then they will respect us, * If we help today, then they will help us tomorrow, * Sit together and discuss together, * Spend some time with family, and share thoughts and dreams with them, * Today’s good time will come back to us with a best time tomorrow, * Help others but don’t forgetchildren and family, * Try our best to maintain a good family environment, * Let them know what we couldn’t do for them and why, * Let them know thatwe love each other, * Improve their own power/force/desire/interest to do the best thing, * Minimize our odd arguments in presence of children, * Mother can do more things for them what father can’t do, * Need the best mother and father for the family and for the society, * Parents must sacrifice somethings for growing them nicely,* Next generation will complete the rest of our work if they grow up properly.

A comparative study of underground water arsenic contamination and suffering of people in Flood Plain with Deltaic reason of Bangladesh

Uttam K Chowdhurya* — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The people were drinking arsenic-contaminated underground water in Bangladesh. We had analyzed 33,092 hand tube-well water samples, collected from all four geomorphological areas (i.e., from all 64 districts) in Bangladesh and found arsenic in 60 districts that were above the WHO recommended value in drinking water (10 μg/L) and in 50 districts that were above maximum permissible limit, 50 μg/L.
In this paper, I have reported the magnitude of arsenic contamination in the tubewell water samples that were collected from two districts of Bangladesh, one from Flood Plain, named Chandpur, and another one from Deltaic region, named Madaripur. It describes the analytical report of arsenic concentrations in underground drinking water and biological samples, and people suffering from arsenic toxicity in these two districts.
In the Madaripur district, 19.62% of the total tubewell water samples (n=2,309) contained arsenic concentrations that were below WHO recommended value (10 μg/L) and safe to drink, and 80.38% and 59.59% of the tubewells contained levels arsenic that were above 10 μg/L and 50 μg/L, respectively. In Chandpur district (n=1,165 tubewell water samples), these values are 4.12, 95.88, and 92.79%, respectively. Of the samples in Madaripur, the percentage of water samples with arsenic are 26.94, 12.68, 3.29. 0.91, and 0.22% in the ranges 100-299, 300-499, 500-699, 700-1,000, and above 1,000 μg As/L, respectively. In Chandpur district, these values are 57.86, 25.15, 4.81, 1.80, and 0.43%, respectively.
During our preliminary survey, arsenical patients were identified in all 42 villages, and we surveyed 8 police stations under these two districts. In this survey, 1,038 and 1,605 people (including children) were examined and 81 (7.8%) and 157 (9.78%) people had been identified with arsenical skin lesions from Madaripur and Chandpur districts, respectively. It appears that the overall arsenical skin lesions of adult females are somewhat higher than adult males. We identified arsenical skin lesions of one teenager (girl) and four children (girls) in Madaripur and Chandpur districts, respectively. We could not identify any cancer patient out of a total of 238 patients in these two districts.
The analytical results show that 100% of all hair, nail, and urine samples from Madaripur district, and 96% of hair & 100% of nail samples from Chandpur district, have levels of arsenic that were above toxic/normal level, respectively. The mean concentrations of arsenic in hair, nail, and urine samples from Madaripur district are 4,591 μg/kg, 9,004 μg/kg, and 550 μg/L; and hair & nail from Chandpur district are 3,990 μg/kg and 7,355 μg/kg, respectively. The arsenic level in hair, nail, and urine from Madaripur; and hair & nail from Chandpur districts were much higher than that of the people residing in an area where drinking water is not arsenic contaminated (<3 μg/L) i.e., control population. During our dermatological
survey in the affected villages, it was observed that all members in a family were drinking arsenic contaminated water and have high arsenic body burden (hair, nail) but not all have arsenic skin lesions. The linear regressions analyses between the arsenic concentrations in drinking water samples and arsenic concentrations in hair / nail / urine samples (combining samples from these two districts) show a positive co-relation (for hair samples r = 0.677, n = 69, p = 0.0000001; for nail samples r = 0.724, n = 67, p = 0.00000004; and for urine samples r = 0.545, n = 44, p = 0.0001). The linear regression between arsenic in hair and nail samples also shows a positive correlation (r = 0.81, n = 67, p= 0.00000006).
In conclusions, (a) it appears to be that there is a higher concentration of arsenic groundwater contamination in Chandpur district (Flood Plain) as compared to Madaripur district (Deltaic region); (b) shallow hand tube-wells (<100 meters depth) are more dominating with arsenic in both Madaripur and Chandpur districts; (c) arsenic concentration decreasing with the increase of depth in both Madaripur and Chandpur districts (above 40 meters); (d) arsenical skin lesions of adult females are higher than adult males, and the reasons could be: (i) women drink water from the same tubewell whereas men from different tubewells and (ii) in villages of Bangladesh, women suffer more from malnutrition than men; (e) common problems in arsenic patients such as intolerance to sunlight, burning sensations on whole body, and respiratory problems; (f) many villagers are sub-clinically affected due to arsenic toxicity; and (g) this study took place before 2001, and we need a follow-up study/survey to know the present status.