Child labor is a persistent problem in Bangladesh. Of the estimated 16 million children aged 10 to 14 years, over 6.8 million are working children. Girls comprise forty-one percent of this group. Children are engaged in over 300 different types of work activities of which 49 are considered harmful to their physical and/or mental well-being. Although the law prohibits labor by children, including forced or bonded labor, these are commonplace. Enforcement of existing laws is inadequate.

Millions of people across the world consume arsenic daily in their drinking water. In some regions, such as parts of Bangladesh and Taiwan, the drinking water levels of this toxic metal have been associated with diseases such as anemia, vascular lesions, peripheral neuropathy, and cancers of the skin, bladder, kidney, prostate, liver, and lung. But these risks may vary considerably, even among populations that seem to have similar levels of arsenic exposure. According to Ellen Silbergeld, a professor of environmental health sciences at The John Hopkins University, such variations could reflect polymorphisms in genes such as those that code for methylase enzymes (which mediate the metabolism of arsenic), and these polymorphisms may determine both the incidence and severity of disease among individuals. Silbergeld and her colleagues, reporting in the June 2003 issue of Environmental Research, analyzed data on the urinary distribution of arsenic and arsenic metabolites in three populations from Mexico, Chile, and Inner Mongolia. Earlier analysis by other researchers had revealed a substantial variability in levels of urinary arsenic and methylated metabolites. Silbergeld's reassessment of the data set revealed that the distribution of arsenic metabolites was consistent with the possibility of genetic differences in arsenic metabolism. Christopher Loffredo, the Georgetown University cancer epidemiologist who spearheaded the reassessment, says the reported differences in arsenic-associated health risks among the populations his team surveyed may reflect, at least in part, the ethnic variation across the three groups. "This research eventually might help us identify subsets of the population that are at higher risk for developing arsenic-related cancers," he says. But whether these population-based differences reflect genetic polymorphisms in arsenic-metabolizing enzymes remains an open question. The frequency of polymorphisms in several methylase genes is known to vary by ethnicity, and such polymorphisms could exert differential effects on arsenic metabolism. However, this study was not designed to demonstrate that relationship. Moreover, because the Chilean and Mongolian population samples were relatively small, the researchers acknowledge that larger studies are needed to verify the results. Finally, the analysis did not control for covariates such as water intake and diet, both of which may influence the distributions of urinary arsenic metabolites.

According to the National Research Council, it has been difficult to establish the magnitude of arsenic-related risks in human population studies when data are drawn from different countries. Improvements in cancer risk estimation may require an improved understanding of such factors as metabolism, as well as the role of metabolites in carcinogenicity and other toxic effects. Silbergeld agrees. For a complete picture, she says, genotypic studies should be coupled with studies of phenotypic variation, such as those that measure biomarkers of arsenic metabolism.
M. Nathaniel Mead
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2004/112-2/forum.html?section=children#arsen

SEATTLE - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today an $82.9 million grant to the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation to support development of new vaccines to prevent tuberculosis, a disease that kills nearly two million people every year. The grant, the largest ever for TB vaccine development, will allow Aeras to fund human trials of promising TB vaccines and early research on the next generation of vaccines.

Dr. Richard Klausner, executive director of the Gates Foundation's Global Health program, announced the grant at the opening session of the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Seattle. The grant will more than double the amount spent annually on TB vaccine research worldwide.

"It's unacceptable that TB continues to kill someone every 15 seconds when we have the ability to discover new tools to stop it," Klausner said. "Through accelerated research and development, a new vaccine could permanently change the trajectory of the epidemic and save millions of lives every year."

Two billion people - one out of every three people on earth - are infected with the TB pathogen. TB is the leading killer of people infected with HIV. Fueled by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, TB is resurgent in the developing world, and the World Health Organization projects that 36 million people could die of the disease over the next 20 years.

Experts from around the world are gathering in Bangladesh for a conference on arsenic contamination of ground water.
Scientists estimate 85 million people in the country are drinking water that contains dangerous levels of the chemical. It leads to severe health problems, including cancer. The three-day conference is taking place at Dhaka Community Hospital, a world leader in the field of arsenic poisoning. Scientists, doctors and representatives of aid agencies will be discussing progress in the campaign to make Bangladesh's drinking water safe. The conference has been organised by Professor Qazi Karuzzaman of Dhaka Community Hospital. Tests Most people in Bangladesh get their supplies from tube wells. But across much of Bangladesh the water from underground is contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic, which causes skin and liver conditions as well as cancer. It is contained in the sediments washed down the rivers that pass through the country before emptying into the Bay of Bengal. The Indian state of West Bengal which borders Bangladesh is similarly affected. But just one in five wells have been tested, and fewer than 10% of villages where arsenic has been detected are being supplied with alternative sources of safe water. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3490573.stm