Mitigating Arsenic-Related Health Problems in Bangladesh by Introducing High-Selenium Lentils into the Everyday Diet

In Bangladesh, 1 in 5 deaths (600,000 per year) occur due to groundwater arsenic, dubbed by WHO as the largest mass poisoning in history, with some 77 million people at risk. A project based at the University of Calgary, meanwhile, will work to increase the use of Western Canadian lentils in Bangladeshi diets. The crop is rich in selenium, which can decrease arsenic levels and improve health. Lentils from Saskatchewan, naturally rich in the arsenic-antagonist, selenium, will be incorporated in the Bangladeshi diet providing a holistic solution to measurably decrease arsenic levels and improve health of arsenic exposed populations.