Arsenic contamination in drinking waters has been a serious public health concern due to both carcinogenic and other health effects. The main sources of human exposure to arsenic are the drinking waters. Arsenic can cause chronic illness and death, even at low levels of arsenic concentration in drinking waters. There are many technologies available for removal of arsenic from contaminated drink...

s, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1999, p. 24. 60. Datta, D. K. and Subramanian, V., Distribution and fractionation of heavy metals in the surface sediments of the Ganges– Brahmaputra–Meghna river system in the Bengal basin. Environ. Geol., 1998, 36, 93–101. 61. Bhattacharya, P., Jacks, G., Jana, J., Sracek, A., Gustafsson, J. P. and Chatterjee, D., Geochemistry of the Holocene alluvial sedim...

Arsenic contamination of drinking water poses serious health risks to millions of people worldwide. Current technologies used to clean arsenic-contaminated water have significant drawbacks, such as high cost and generation of large volumes of toxic waste. In this study, we investigated the potential of using recently identified arsenic-hyperaccumulating ferns to remove arsenic from drinking wat...

CONTEXT Medicinal use of dietary herbal supplements can cause inadvertent arsenic toxicosis. CASE PRESENTATION A 54-year-old woman was referred to the University of California, Davis, Occupational Medicine Clinic with a 2-year history of worsening alopecia and memory loss. She also reported having a rash, increasing fatigue, nausea, and vomiting, disabling her to the point where she could no ...

The characteristics of arsenic-contaminated groundwater and the potential risks from the groundwater were investigated. Arsenic contamination in groundwater was found in four villages (Vinh Tru, Bo De, Hoa Hau, Nhan Dao) in Ha Nam province in northern Vietnam. Since the groundwater had been used as one of the main drinking water sources in these regions, groundwater and hair samples were collec...

Contamination of water and sediment with arsenic (As) in a highly industrialized area of Pohang City, Korea was investigated, with emphasis on in situ bioaccumulation of arsenicals by various aquatic organisms. Species- and tissue-specific concentrations of arsenicals were determined by use of HPLC-ICP/MS and μ-X-ray absorption near-edge structure (μ-XANES). Concentrations of arsenic in aquatic...

The article by Mitra and colleagues in this issue of the Journal presents an interesting scenario on arsenic contamination from Bangladesh (1). The paper further confirms the health effects of arsenic and contributes to the literature, especially regarding the inverse relationship between body mass index and the duration of disease. Many tubewells in Bangladesh have been contaminated with arsen...

Distributions of arsenic and metals in surface sediments collected from the coastal and estuarine areas of the northern Bohai and Yellow Seas, China, were investigated. An ecological risk assessment of arsenic and metals in the sediments was evaluated by three approaches: the Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs) of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the degree of contamina...

Arsenic exposures contribute significantly to the burden of preventable disease worldwide, specifically related to increased risks of cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Most exposures are associated with natural contamination of groundwater, which is difficult to mitigate when these sources are used for drinking water. An anthropogenic source of arsenic exposure stems from the widesp...

The contents of nine elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sb and Zn) have been assayed in the farming soils of Suszec commune (southern Poland). This area is affected by the main industrial centre of Poland (the Upper Silesian Industrial Region), the Czech Republic (Trzyniec smelter) and local contamination sources (coal mine). The contamination of the soils was assessed on the basis of geoacc...