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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2004  > February  >
Chemistry for Everyone
Arsenic in Drinking Water—A Global Environmental Problem
Joanna Shaofen Wang and Chien M. Wai
Department of Chemistry, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-2343

Cover
February 2004
Vol. 81 No. 2
p. 207

Abstract
Arsenic contamination of groundwater is a global environmental problem affecting a large number of populations, especially in developing countries. The "blackfoot disease"that occurred in Taiwan more than half of a century ago was attributed to drinking arsenic-contaminated water from deep wells containing high concentrations of the trivalent arsenite species. Similar arsenic poisoning cases were reported later in Chinese Inner Mongolia, Bangladesh, and India—all related to drinking groundwater contaminated with arsenic. The maximum contaminant level (MCL) of arsenic in drinking water has been changed recently by the U.S. EPA from 50 ppb to 10 ppb; the compliance date is January 2006. This article summarizes documented global arsenic contamination problems, the regulatory controversy regarding MCL of arsenic in drinking water, and available technologies for removing arsenic from contaminated waters. Methods for analyzing total arsenic and arsenic species in water are also described.
More Information
*  Citation
Wang, Joanna Shaofen; Wai, Chien M. J. Chem. Educ. 2004 81 207.
*  Keywords
Arsenic; Environmental Chemistry; Green Chemistry; Water / Water Chemistry
*  History
Created:
Last Updated:
January 5, 2004
February 25, 2005
  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2004 > February > Page 207


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