In 1900, beer drinkers in northern England died of arsenic poisoning when sulphuric acid contaminated with arsenic was used in the processing of the beer.
Murderers prefer arsenic as it has no taste or odour.
But arsenic is not just a cause of accidental deaths or a convenient means of eliminating enemies. It is an environmental pollutant of global proportions. The scale of the problem is probably greater in Bangladesh than anywhere else in the world but people in other countries have also suffered from arsenic pollution. In countries such as Bangladesh and Taiwan, arsenic is a natural contaminant of ground water. Arsenic is an element found in geological formations, particularly in granites also containing copper and tin.