The people of nine districts of West Bengal surrounding 38,865-km2(1)
are facing several problems due to the consumption of arsenic, as
arsenic contaminated groundwater is being used for drinking purpose,
agriculture, cooking of food and washing of utensils. It is
established by several authors that constant exposure to arsenic is
associated with cancer of skin, lungs, bones, kidneys, liver, bladder
etc.(1,2). It also depletes body stores of iron, vitamin C and
other essential nutrients leading to intrauterine growth retardation,
decreased immune defenses and disabilities associated with
malnutrition(3). Therefore, theoretically there arises a possibility
that the use of arsenic poisoning water for a long time may affect the
age at menarche (AGM) as it has a definite correlation with
malnutrition. Therefore, the present communication attempts to
deter-mine whether an association exists between arsenic and AGM.
The present sample consists of 385 females (15-20
years) out of which 175 girls are from arsenic affected area of
Ashoke-nagar and Basirhat in the district of north 24-Parganas, West
Bengal, where the tube- wells were marked by the government as
containing arsenic-water above permissible dose (0.05 mg/liter). But
the villagers are still using this water (for 10-12 years) due to lack
of alternative water supplies. However, control data (210 girls) was
collected from a non-arsenic area (Guma) of the same district, after
matching some conditions (social status, monthly income, education,
food habits, family size, living conditions and birth rank of the
subject). Printed questionnaires were used to collect information.
Statistical comparisons were carried out through the use of c2-test
and student’s t-test.
Both affected and non-affected groups are from
Bengali Hindu family, mostly engaged in agriculture having lower
socio-economic strata and protein-poor diet. According to economic
condition, each group was divided into three categories- high (>2000),
medium (1000-2000) and low (<1000). 81.71% of affected and 77.62% of
non-affected girls are illiterate and others are in school standards.
The differences between two groups are non-significant with respect to
both education (c2 = 0.982, df = 1, p >0.05) and economy (c2 = 0.403,
df = 2, p >0.05). They are again identical with regards to family size
(c2 = 1.803, df = 5, p >0.05). But the mean AGM of affected group was
found to be later (14.04 ± 1.05) than the other group (13.28 ± 0.97),
which is statistically significant (t = 7.32, df = 383, p <0.001). AGM
of the former group also deviates from several earlier studies(4) on
Bengali Hindu Women.
It is well established that though menarche is a
normal physiological process, it is influenced by geographical,
physical, pathological, psychological and sociological factors
including education, occupation, nutrition and hygienic living
condition(4,5). In the present study affected group attained menarche
significantly later than the other, though both are enjoying all
similar environ-mental conditions (like economy, education, family
size, food habits, geography etc.) except the consumption of
arsenic for long time, for which the females from affected area are
suffering from several chronic diseases (as diagnosed by the doctors).
Thus though our data can not directly prove the
influence of arsenic on AGM, it does not also reject the hypothesis of
the association. As it is the first study of documenting this
association, detailed evaluation with much more data over a wide area
is, therefore, needed to accept or reject the hypothesis with
certainty.
Mahua Sengupta,
Anthropology and Human Genetics Unit,
Indian Statistical Institute,
203, B. T. Road, Kolkata 700 108.
E-mail:
[email protected]
