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addressing the situation, The situation calls for attention on both a short-term, emergency basis as well as a long-term one. On both time-scales, relevant research knowledge needs to be generated |
by geochemists, hydrogeologists, toxicologists, epidemiologists; improved testing kits and mitigation technologies are also urgently needed. This information then must be effectively collected, synthesized, and disseminated to NGOs, development organizations, officials |
from government agencies, and communities in order to successfully facilitate, design, and implement informed solutions. On-going collaborative mitigation projects between these stakeholders will be discussed latter in the report. Geochemical |
and Hydrogeological Issues Numerous hydrogeological and geochemical questions have yet to be answered in terms of understanding the specific processes through which arsenic levels have become concentrated in well water. |
Scientists agree that the origin of the arsenic is in alluvial sediments deposited by the Ganges, Branmaputra, and Meghna rivers. At issue are the processes by which these sediments were |
laid down, their distribution and makeup, and the reactions by which arsenic (As) is mobilized into groundwater (Acharyya et al. 1999). Questions as to the movement of As within the |
aquifers as well as the specific factors determining spatial and temporal variability are also unresolved. When the problem was first identified, the theory was put forth that the arsenic was |
mobilized through pyrite oxidation, such that due to pumping, air or water with dissolved oxygen mixed with the groundwater, resulting in the oxidation of arsenic-rich pyrite in the aquifer sediments. |
Ross Nickson and his colleagues, in their 1998 article published in Nature, proposed a second theory that the reduction of arsenic-rich iron oxyhydroxides in anoxic groundwater results in the release |
of arsenic (Nickson et al. 1998). The debate continues and is politically charged, for if the first theory proves correct in instances, than it implicates the high use of groundwater |
for improved agricultural productivity as a reason behind the problem (Acharyya et al 1999). Researchers seem to have correlated depth of wells with presence of high arsenic levels, as aquifers |
deeper than 150-200 meters generally seem to be free of dangerous concentrations, yet their feasibility needs to be assessed on a site-specific basis because of variations in water salinity, drilling |
difficulties, and the possibility of contamination by more shallow layers of sediment (British Geological Survey 1999). Further research will hopefully enable more informed placement of wells, as knowledge of sediment |
composition and arsenic mobilization mechanisms improves. Health effects from chronically consuming water with high levels of arsenic take five or more years to appear. However, high concentration levels in a |
well may not necessarily correlate with high levels of arsenic symptoms among the well's drinkers. This makes detection difficult and complicates attempts to calculate intake levels and correlate those with |
resulting health problems (WHO 1999). The training of health officials to recognize symptoms of arsenic poisoning, as well as promoting information campaigns to explain the dangers of drinking unsafe water |
to villagers is a priority, but this task is complicated both by the above-given uncertainties as well as by the phenomenon that among people using water from the same well, |
some may appear visibly sick while others seem healthy. The factors involved with this are still poorly understood but there is some studies suggest that variations in diet, overall health, |
and immunity are part of the cause (UNICEF 2000). Many long-term medical research issues thus present themselves, which will become increasingly crucial as time passes and the slow onset of |
symptoms and illnesses becomes more apparent. Outstanding problems include understanding what factors increase susceptibility to the disorders known to be induced by arsenic poisoning -- hyperpigmentation, keratosis, peripheral vascular disorders, |
and skin cancer. The relationship between specific health outcomes and amount of exposure, the degree to which As cycles through food chains and impacts health in this way, and the |
linkage of arsenic intake to other disorders such as diabetes and hypertension are all issues that need further research (WHO 1999). The affect of mother's intake upon unborn children is |
also a subject of research (personal communication with Joseph Graziano, May 2000). Of urgent need from the research and development sector is the development of sensitive, reliable, low-cost equipment for |
testing As in the field, and affordable technologies for small-scale arsenic removal for household or village wells. Bangladesh has at least four million tube wells, all of which (ideally) need |
to be tested and monitored because of the variability of arsenic concentrations in wells at close proximity. The most sophisticated method of measuring arsenic concentrations, that of using an atomic |
adsorption spectrophotometer (AAS) is out of the question in terms of both expense and coordination of sampling (WHO 1999). Available field testing kits are not sensitive enough to detect mid-range |
concentration levels (.02-.05 mg/l) that are detrimental to human health. The Bangladesh Chemical and Biological Society of North America is a group that has criticized the testing methods that UNICEF, |
the World Bank, and NGOs have been using as insensitive (Leprowski 1999). UNICEF itself acknowledges that a better commercial field-testing kit is needed (UNICEF 2000). Because the most effective known |
treatment for arsenic poisoning is the drinking of clean water, the development and implementation of mitigation technologies, or the identification of and use of alternative safe water sources, is of |
great importance. As mentioned earlier in the report, in many areas, surface water is contaminated and therefore not an alternative without treatment or boiling, which requires use of large amounts |
of fuel not readily available. Options other than use of groundwater are being explored, including rainwater harvesting systems and pond sand filtering which removes bacteria from surface water through slow |
filtering through a large tank filled with sand and gravel (UNICEF 2000). Although proven methods for filtering arsenic from water exist, most of them are designed for large municipal scales. |
The development of methods suitable for small scale, low-cost removal are currently underway, and being tested on site. A technique that has received some media attention is an iron and |
sand pump designed by Nikolas Nikolaidis of the University of Connecticut, in which water is passed through a tube over a well tap that contains sand and iron filings. The |
iron oxidizes in the presence of barium sulphate and reacts with arsenic to form arsenopyrite, an insoluble compound that precipitates out and is trapped in the filter. This is now |
being tested with hopes that it eventually will be put on the market (Beard 1998). A further issue with filtering devices is the need for strategies to safely dispose of |
resulting toxic precipitants (UNICEF 2000). Sociological and Institutional Complications As mentioned earlier in the report, lack of knowledge on the part of villagers as to the presence of arsenic in |
well water or its health affects has sometimes resulted in the stigmatization and ostracization of some community members with visible symptoms. Women have been rejected by husbands or unable to |
marry; children are kept out of school as parents attempt to hide their symptoms (World Bank 1999). Sometimes villagers are reluctant to stop using tubewell water once they have been |
told it is contaminated, because the wells are associated with kinship networks or are status symbols of wealth and prosperity. The delay in manifestation of symptoms and the variations in |
health affects on different drinkers of the same well also lessens the villagers' sense of need to move away from the consumption of contaminated water (Bearak 1998). The government of |
Bangladesh and international development organizations such as the World Bank have been under heated criticism for their slow efforts to acknowledge the problem and assist its victims (Leprowski 1999). UNICEF |
is being sued by a Bangladeshi group called the Forum for Arsenic Patients for its role in neglecting to test tubewells for high metal concentrations (Mahmud and Capella 1999). Bangladeshi |
scientists accuse the government of ignoring their scientific expertise and letting the problem become one addressed by bureaucrats and foreign expertise. Some feel the behavior of visiting researchers has been |
inappropriate, with scientists not properly explaining their work or intentions and villagers expecting the researchers to return with a cure that, of course, never comes (Leprowski 1999). Because the government |
of Bangladesh does not have the resources to provide the affected population with people with emergency safe water supplies, and because of the spatial variability of contaminated well sites, site-specific |
solutions must be found and implemented with mitigation technologies and strategies appropriate to the resources of the community. This necessitates active community participation and transfer of knowledge from researchers and |
government officials to NGOs and community leaders. Because significant awareness of the problem and attempts to address it are in beginning stages, very little social science research has yet been |
published examining what forms of information dissemination have been most effective and what interactions between government officials, development agency representatives, NGO workers, scientists, and communities are proving successful (personal communication |
with Rounaq Jahan, April 2000). On-going Mitigation Projects The World Bank and UNICEF are at present funding programs that incorporate government agencies, NGOs, and community participation in developing solutions. UNICEF's |
Arsenic Mitigation Programme includes both national and community based measures. Starting in 1996, with Bangladesh's Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), it embarked upon a National Arsenic Testing Programme; it |
is also currently supporting the development of new field technologies for arsenic analysis. In its Community Action Based Research Project, launched in cooperation with three NGOs -- The Bangladesh Rural |
Advancement Council, Dhaka Community Hospital (DCH), and Grameen Bank -- in Spring of 1999, alternative water sources such as rainwater harvesting systems and pond sand filters are being installed and |
monitored, and arsenic removal technologies are being tested for usefulness and appropriateness. The organization has organized training programs for medical workers to become familiar with arsenic induced health issues, and |
is working with DCH to identify and care for patients. In 1999, the government's Nationwide Communication Strategy for Arsenic, developed with UNICEF support, began its efforts to spread awareness of |
the dangers of drinking arsenic-contaminated water (UNICEF 2000). The organization plans to increase its efforts from supporting approximately 10,000 more villages in addition to the roughly 800 it is already |
working with. In 1998, the World Bank approved a US$32.4 million interest-free loan for a Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation Water Supply Project (BAMWSP); the government of Bangladesh contributed an additional US$9 |
million, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation another US$3 million. The project went into effect in February of 1999, and is to be implemented over a four year |
period. A nation-wide rapid emergency component will screen all wells, disseminate information to communities, and undertake rapid health surveys and identify services for diagnosis and treatment. A second component will |
operate in specific regions to develop alternative water supply options. Community organizations, NGOs, and BAMWSP representatives will work together to oversee operation and maintenance of new technologies. A National Arsenic |
Mitigation Information Center will be established to collect, interpret, and disseminate hydrogeological, water quality, health, socioeconomic, and technical data. To evaluate technology options and fund new research, a Technology Assessment |
Group has been established. The project's rhetoric supports active community involvement and requires communities to use some of their own resources to maintain water systems. A "no predefined blueprint" approach |
is being taken, with plans formulated by a project team in consultation with villagers and their NGO partners (World Bank 1999). In conclusion, I wish to express the hope that |
in spite of the enormous organizational challenges that are presented by this problem and complicated by the complexity of necessary information needed to evaluate the issues and design and implement |
informed solutions, the efforts of dedicated and concerned researchers, NGO workers, aid agency and government officials, and the people of Bangladesh will successfully bring medical assistance to victims and safe-drinking |
Despite it being the worst outbreak in 50 years, adults in this country aren’t rolling up their sleeves for pertussis protection. While more than 70% of children are fully vaccinated against the whooping cough, only 8% of adults are up-to-date on their shot. “It lasts about five to ten years, twelve tops. So by the time you’re a teenager, you are probably not immune |
any longer to pertussis. Actually, it’s our adolescent/adult population that transmits this illness,” says Dr. Angela D’Alessandro, a pediatrician with the Lee Memorial Health System medical staff. The T-DAP vaccine is given to those age 19 and up covers tetanus, diptheria and pertussis. Controlling the spread of illness is one reason people are encouraged to get immunized. That includes an annual flu shot. “It's |
such a highly contagious illness and it can cause some significant problems including hospitalizations and death in people as they get older,” says Dr. Sal Lacagnina, vice-president of health and wellness for Lee Memorial Health System. Other immunizations are aimed directly at the individual rather than the masses. The herpes-zoster vaccine for example, is meant for people who once had chicken pox and are |
now at risk for shingles. Only 14% of adults who meet the criteria are getting the shot. “I was not aware of it until just a few years ago when I started hearing about the vaccine that you can get when you reach age 60,” says Diane Breen, who had chicken pox. The pneumonia shot has gotten a healthier response. Recommended for those 65 |
and older, 62% are taking advantage. Finding which shots are right for you is something you should discuss with your doctor. “Everyone over 40, as part of the questions that you bring to your physician, “which immunizations should I have as part of my wellness exam,” says Dr. Lacagnina. |
Douglas of the Fir Page 2 of 3 Sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana Douglas)he rewards were immediate and numerous. Even though first Menzies and then Lewis and Clark had collected plants in the area, they had found only the obvious. Almost |
every day Douglas was in the field he was finding curious plants that proved to be new to science, and as he traveled up the Columbia River, the novelties became more common. Because he was working for the Royal Horticultural |
Society, Douglas had to collect flowering and fruiting material, and then often had to return to the area at a different time of the year to gather seeds. Instead of returning to London in 1826, as instructed by Sabine, Douglas |
decided to stay in America. There were too many new plants yet to be collected. One of the collections he sent to England with the fall's home-bound ship was the dried branches and needles of what he would call "Oregon |
pine," which today is called Douglas-fir. The year 1826 found Douglas deep inland, climbing the tall mountains of northeastern Oregon and various peaks in the Cascade Range. Late that year he collected seeds of as many trees, shrubs and flowers |
as he could find, but if he got cones and seeds of Douglas-fir, he did not mention them. Rain and snow made collecting impossible for the first three months of 1827, and then in late March he and a small |
party set out to return to England via Hudson's Bay. Carrying all of his new collections, he and his crew traveled up the Columbia River and across the Rocky Mountains, reaching York Factory on the southwestern shore of the Bay |
on July 28. Douglas spent two frustrating years in England, to which he returned on October 15, 1827. In a sense it was a productive time. He was able to describe the sugar pine, Pinus lambertianus (lam-bert-ee-AYE-nuss; the name means |
"in honor of Lambert"), the most distinctive discovery that he himself published. As for the other novelties, he left them for others to describe. In late October of 1829, Douglas headed back for the Columbia River as the pages of |
the Transactions of the Royal Horticultural Society and other journals were beginning to fill with the technical descriptions of the numerous new species of flowering plants he had already discovered. Some eight months later, Douglas's ship reached the smooth waters |
of the Columbia, and once again he was collecting in the Pacific Northwest. In a letter dated October 11, 1830, Douglas wrote Hooker that he was sending a special package of six conifers, and apparently all with seeds. One of |
A Guide to the Reed (Jefferson) Family Papers, 1830-1901 Colonist and farmer Jefferson Reed moved to Robertson Colony, Texas, from Mississippi in the early 1830s. The Reed family, including Jefferson’s wife Patsy Reed, Michael Reed, Volney Reed, William Reed, and Lucy Reed, farmed cotton and bred cattle. Due to issues with agricultural cultivation and cotton production, the Reed family engaged |
in the horse breeding business in the 1870s and 1880s. Business letters, legal documents, financial papers, and broadsides comprise the Reed (Jefferson) Family Papers, 1830-1901, documenting the personal affairs of the Reed family. Legal documents and financial papers concern Jefferson Reed’s cotton production and livestock breeding, while also including a slave bill of sale, memoranda booklets, receipts, and promissory notes. |
Letters written by Reed to business partners shed light on the difficulty of agriculture and problems with the land and soil in central east Texas. This collection is open for research use. Reed (Jefferson) Family Papers, 1830-1901, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from |
THIS STORY of the Struggle for academic freedom at the University of Wisconsin begins with a political revolution in the year 1890. In the preceding year the Republican legislature, under Governor William D. Hoard, had passed the Bennett Law which |
brought all parochial schools under the control of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Despite the protests of those favoring complete independence for parochial schools the Republicans chose to support the Bennett Law in the election of 1890. The first |
plank of the party platform disclaimed any design "to interfere in any manner with such schools, either as to their terms, government, or branches to be taught therein," and argued that since the law was "wise and humane in all |
its essential purposes" it should not be repealed. Opposedly, the last plank of the Democratic platform contended that the law represented needless interference with parental rights and liberty of conscience, and denounced the regulation as "unnecessary, unwise, unconstitutional, un-American and |
undemocratic." The Democrats demanded repeal. In the campaign which followed, debate centered principally on the Bennett Law. Republicans plastered all parts of the state with placards bearing a picture of the little red school house and a legend urging support |
of the law. Their campaign failed. Except for the single term of Governor Taylor, (1874-1876), the Republican party had dominated in Wisconsin since 1856. In 1890 the Republican control was broken. George W. Peck of Milwaukee, author of widely known |
stories about Peck's Bad Boy, became Democratic governor for two consecutive terms. Under Democratic auspices the legislature promptly repealed the Bennett Law. The Democratic victory also elevated Oliver E. Wells, an obscure teacher from Appleton, to the office of State |
Superintendent of Public Instruction. He assumed his position July 1, 1892. By virtue of this office, Wells automatically became an ex-officio member of the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin. Within a few years he achieved notoriety by |
becoming the antagonist and violent public accuser of Professor Richard T. Ely, liberal director of the School of Economics, Political Science and History at the University. Professor Ely had come to Wisconsin as one of America's most distinguished political economists. |
He had taken his doctorate at Heidelberg in 1879, and after 1881 had been a member of the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University, then the foremost graduate institution in the United States. According to Professor Edward A. Ross, who |
had taken work with Ely at Hopkins, his courses were by far the most pervasive and influential offered in the social sciences. Long before he had moved to Madison, Ely had freed himself from orthodox free-trade economics and had pioneered |
with a realistic, inductive approach to the subject. Since his economics aimed at promoting the welfare of human beings, Ely's attentions turned frequently to the concerns of the workaday world. He had a special interest in organized labor, an interest |
which involved him in dispute with Oliver E. Wells shortly after his removal to Madison. Labor relations had been untroubled in Wisconsin's capital city prior to Ely's arrival. Then in the winter of 1892-93 a union organizer named Klunk, of |
Kansas City, came to town to organize the printers of the Democrat Printing Company. In January the printers struck, just as the company began fulfilment of its contract for state printing, which in that year amounted to more than $25,000. |
The company imported strike breakers and housed them in upper rooms of the Democrat building. There were numerous fights, clubbings, a stabbing in a North Pinckney Street saloon, and other disorders between strikers and strike breakers. A lockout followed the |
failure of the strike. Within seven weeks there was another unsuccessful strike, this time at the shop of Tracy-Gibbs Printing Company. Five weeks before the strike Professor Ely called on W. A. Tracy to urge him to unionize his shop. |
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