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Abstract: Arsenic (As) induced identifiable health outcomes are now spreading across Indian subcontinent with continuous discovery of high As concentrations in groundwater. This study deals with groundwater hydrochemistry vis-à-vis As exposure assessment among rural population in Chakdaha block, West Bengal, India. The water quality survey reveals that 96% of the tubewells exceed WHO guideline value (10 μg/L of As). The groundwaters are generally anoxic (−283 to −22 mV) with circum-neutral pH (6.3 to 7.8). The hydrochemistry is dominated by HCO3 − (208 to 440mg/L), Ca2+ (79 to 178mg/L) and Mg2+ (17 to 45mg/L) ions along with high concentrations of AsT (As total, below detection limit to 0.29mg/L), FeT (Fe total, 1.2 to 16mg/L), and Fe(II) (0.74 to 16mg/L). The result demonstrates that Fe(II)–Fe(III) cycling is the dominant process for the release of As from aquifer sediments to groundwater (and vice versa), which is mainly controlled by the local biogeochemical conditions. The exposure scenario reveals that the consumption of groundwater and rice are the major pathways of As accumulation in human body, which is explained by the dietary habit of the surveyed population. Finally, regular awareness campaign is essential as part of the management and prevention of health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The above paper has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy). This article has been retracted at the request of the Editors-in-Chief. Despite the inclusion of interesting original data in this paper, serious concerns have been raised about the manner of their interpretation in the Discussion section. Parts of papers Appl Geochem, 19 (2004), 1255–1293http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2004.02.001 and Water Res. Research, 37(2001), 109–117http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2000WR900270 have been plagiarized. An initial attempt to address this issue with the authors resulted in a Corrigendum but the explanations offered in this were not subjected to sufficient scrutiny, due to a combination of errors by the Publisher and the Editors-in-Chief, and were later judged to be incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]