77 million people in Bangladesh have been exposed to arsenic in drinking water, "the largest mass poisoning of a population in history".

Up to 77 million people in Bangladesh have been exposed to toxic levels of arsenic in drinking water, putting them at risk of an early death, a recent study shows.

The new study published Saturday in the British medical journal, the Lancet, found that more than 20 percent of deaths among those assessed could be attributed to the naturally occurring poisonous element.

Nearly 12,000 Bangladeshis in a district of the capital Dhaka were assessed during the 10-year study. More...

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