Linda Smith, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Dallas, and Tai-chyi Shei, a UTD doctoral student, shows off a simple solution to arsenic found in groundwater in Nepalese villages: a filter made of gravel, sand, iron nails and shards of brick.
Linda Smith, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Dallas, and Tai-chyi Shei, a UTD doctoral student, shows off a simple solution to arsenic found in groundwater in Nepalese villages: a filter made of gravel, sand, iron nails and shards of brick.
She's going back this month with an additional mission: to help the villagers who are slowly being poisoned.
Dr. Smith, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Dallas, is one of the founders of Filters for Families, a nonprofit organization that distributes low-cost, low-tech devices to remove the naturally occurring chemical element from their drinking water.
The filtering device, based on a design created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, relies on nothing more complex than iron nails, sand and gravel layered in a large plastic bucket.
But the filters, which cost less than $20 each, could change the lives of millions of people in Nepal and other Asian countries.
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"A little care goes a long way," Dr. Smith said. "We've already distributed 172 that are helping over 2,000 people."
The World Health Organization has called the mass arsenic poisoning the worst natural disaster in history.
Dr. Smith went to Nepal in 2001 as a lecturer/researcher at Tribhuvan University in Katmandu and to lead a small group of scientists in mapping the arsenic-laden layer of rock in the towering Himalaya Mountains along the country's northern border.
Each year, the powerful monsoon rains leach the poison into the groundwater, where it is drawn by villagers using shallow tube wells.
Ironically, construction of these wells was encouraged by governments and aid organizations in recent decades as a way to avoid bacterial contamination that comes from drinking surface water. In solving one problem, the wells created another.
Dr. Smith got a first-hand look at the result of arsenic poisoning when one of her Tribhuvan University students asked her to visit one of the villages where people had been drinking the contaminated water.
She saw people with the telltale signs of arsenic poisoning: blackened skin on the palms of the hands; scaling on the soles of the feet; open lesions; skin mottling.
The damage is more than skin deep. It can cause lethargy, nervous disorders and possibly brain damage. The injuries to the feet and hands can lead to gangrene and the loss of fingers and toes.
Dr. Smith found water containing as much as 700 parts per billion of arsenic in some areas. A safe level is 10 parts per billion, she said.
While the problem is widespread, the solution is surprisingly simple. Under the direction of trained workers, Nepalese villagers are taught to take sand from riverbanks and sieve it through a wire mesh.
Gravel and sand are layered in a clean plastic can topped by a diffuser containing iron nails and shards of brick.
When water is poured through the filter, the arsenic bonds to the iron in the nails.
"Arsenic is not toxic when it's bonded with iron," Dr. Smith said. "They can scoop it out once a month."
With this reusable device, 96 percent of the arsenic is removed from the water, said Tai-chyi Shei, a UTD doctoral student who is co-founder of Filters for Families. The organization also distributes vitamins to help reverse the effects of the poisoning.
So far, the project has been operating on a shoestring, with a total of $6,700 donated mainly from Dr. Smith and Mr. Shei's churches in the Dallas area. The money has been used to distribute 172 filters and 16,000 bottles of vitamins. They hope the project they call "research with a heart" can help even more people suffering from this insidious poison.
"For $2, you can save a person for a lifetime," Mr. Shei said.
Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
