Description

Natural arsenic salts are present in all waters, with natural concentrations of less than 10 parts per billion (ppb). Unfortunately, there is an increasing number of countries where toxic arsenic compounds in groundwater, which is used for drinking and irrigation, have been detected at concentrations above the World Health Organization's determined safe drinking limit of 10ppb. Of particular concern is the situation in Bangladesh, where it is estimated that there are more than 1 million people drinking arsenic-rich water (above 50ppb). It is imperative that people stop using wells where arsenic levels are high.

Pollution
Water pollution

More from this issue

Jan 2011
Journal Article

This article is a version of the talk given by Jonathan Osborne as the Association for Science Education (ASE) invited lecturer at the National...

Jan 2011
Journal Article

Here, we continue the idea of tabulating key dates, extending these to cover both the spring and summer terms (Tables 1 and 2). Together with the...

Jan 2011
Journal Article