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Posts Tagged ‘Arsenic’
Arsenic Found in Vietnam and Cambodian Rivers
Friday, November 28th, 2008While my main focus at BigBerkeyWaterFilters is reporting on water conditions in the United States, I also look for big impact stories that seem to miss the US news networks entirely. Many of these water stories are low on the totem pole in the eyes of the US media and simply do not make print or the airwaves, however these international accounts are invaluable for making us aware of water conditions around the world. How these countries are coping and adjusting to these conditions is a helpful lesson for us, allowing for the perspective we need to make the suitable changes in how we treat and respect our water here at home.
A public announcement, spurred on by a joint effort between UNICEF and the health organizations of two governments recently stated that the Mekong River, which runs through Cambodia and Vietnam, is contaminated with arsenic at a harmful level. More than 21% of the Vietnamese population is at risk, exposed to higher than the EPA and the WHO (World Heath Organization) maximum acceptable levels of arsenic at 10 ppb (parts per billion). When asked about the source of contamination, the chief of UNICEF’s water safety branch stated that “Arsenic contamination in the Mekong is understood to have been caused by recent sedimentation”, and that “it is not known if this has been caused by other reasons as well such as industrial pollution since there has been no scientific study or evidence to support that.” In some regions along the Mekong River, the arsenic levels were found to be above 300 ppb causing the Vietnamese health ministry to warn residents that contamination at these extreme levels have the ability to result in cancer within 3-4 years.
Arsenic Contaminated Areas in Mekong and Red Rivers
Earlier Studies Support Findings
While these findings were made public recently over the last couple weeks, there have been numerous studies of both the Mekong River and the Red River highlighting these surfacing dangers. One of the more prominent research papers was performed by a group of university and environmental group scientists published September 2006 titled “Magnitude of arsenic pollution in the Mekong and Red River Deltas — Cambodia and Vietnam”. In that paper, researchers concluded that arsenic contamination was prevalent with chronic poisoning of 10 million people in the red river delta region and .5-1 million people in the Mekong river region. Similar to the UNICEF and government findings, these scientists believed that this arsenic was of natural origin and caused by reductive dissolution of arsenic bearing iron buried in aquifers. Hair samples of citizens within these regions confirmed these higher arsenic concentration accumulations. A potential source of this new found health hazard point to the population’s growing reliance on ground wells set in the 12-45M depth range where seepage is occurring at a high rate. This sort of arsenic contamination of wells occurs in some regions of the US also but tends to localized. Unfortunately, the danger is not isolated to wells in Cambodia and Vietnam as the bottled water, fish, and rice farms of both countries were found to be affected.
Many residents of the two countries have been aware or suspected of the arsenic contamination prior to these official statements and have been abandoning wells and searching for alternate water sources for a number of years. The Vietnamese government and UNICEF have provided personal water filters to rural home residents, but the amount of individuals that remain unprotected is not clear. Cambodia has chosen to paint contaminated water wells red as part of their action plan. As to information concerning long term arsenic filtration and removal; the proposals and strategy are not well known and hard to determine. This is of great concern to the primarily poor residents affected by this problem since contamination is likely to continue or increase according to research that’s been conducted.
Arsenic in Your Well Water?
Sunday, October 26th, 2008I remember when someone first told me that arsenic can be found in the drinking water coming from the taps of many homes in the United States. I took it as one of those scare statistics at first, until I came across a newspaper article on the subject a couple months later. It’s at that point that I decided to do a little research. I’ve written an article posted on ezine that gets into the details, but let me cover some of it here.
Arsenic is deadly, period. It is known for causing all sorts of cancers including bladder, lung and skin and possibly kidney and liver cancer. In 2006, the EPA set the arsenic standard for drinking water at .010 parts per million (10 parts per billion) to protect consumers served by public water systems from the effects of long-term, chronic exposure to arsenic. However, the limit was set at 50 ppb up until that time and the EPA readily admits that it reduced the maximum in part due to studies revealing health deterioration at these levels.
It’s a step in the right direction that public water systems are required to stay below 10ppb, but if you get your water from a well, you may be drinking water with much higher levels of arsenic contamination. Many areas of the country, particularly the western United States are known for naturally high levels of arsenic in the ground and well water. Being an element found in the earth’s sediment, arsenic has the ability to leech into your well water source and you may be none the wiser. Hopefully, if you live in a particularly vulnerable area, your town and/or state officials require arsenic testing as part of a home inspection or house transfer. Unfortunately there are also many towns that do not require this, or are simply not aware of new studies highlighting the need for more stringent arsenic thresholds.
State and federal governments do not require regular testing of well water for arsenic, so what develops is a gap in public safety. The public water officials must report their arsenic levels on a regular basis to state and federal officials, but many homeowners have been drinking from wells that haven’t been tested in decades. The distress of researchers pushing this issue is that even at levels lower than 10ppb, the continuous consumption of low doses may result in cancer 15-30 years down the road.
Fortunately, arsenic testing can be done for as little as $50 and it may be well worth your while to get it checked out. You can also invest in a full home filtration system, but these installations can cost upwards of $4000, with additional annual costs of $300. I recommend point of use water filters as an inexpensive and highly effective option. I’m partial to Berkey water filters since they are distinguished for their arsenic removing filter technology and the systems last for many years without needing regular filter replacements typical of others on the market. Regardless of your choice, if you drink well water, please take a few moments to learn if you may be affected by this chemical and explore your options.
The Thirsty Berkey – For the Love of Clean Water
Contaminants in our “Pure Mtn Spring” Bottled Water? - Part 2
Friday, October 17th, 2008Well it’s time for me to touch on some of the other findings from the Environmental Working Group’s study on 10 major brands of bottled water. See part 1 of bottled water contaminants here. Being released just this week, I’m hoping we’ll see some major news organizations follow-up on these disturbing results.
Altogether, the test found 38 different type of contaminants with a average of 8 in each bottle of water. 4 of the 10 bottles also were contaminated with bacteria. Ugh! So, what sorts of contaminants are we talking about here? How about disinfection byproducts or waste water pollutants like caffeine and Tylenol. There’s also your standard array of heavy metals including arsenic, radioactive isotopes, and fertilize residue (nitrate and ammonia). Also found were what the study termed “tentatively identified” industrial chemicals such as solvents, plasticizers, viscosity decreasing agents, and propellants. I wonder where that’s coming from?
This is not the first time a study has highlighted some of these contaminants found in our bottled water. What’s truly fascinating is that the marketing department would lead you to believe that you’re getting water from a spring in the Rockie’s or the Catskills…a pristine source undisturbed by the byproducts of our human development. Most of us are not naive enough to believe this hype though; especially since the fine print usually gives it away. That is, if there is a fine print. According to a EWG survey of 228 brands of bottled water, less than half state their source or detail any information regarding treatment. Transparency is a usually a good thing for the consumer, and if we take our health seriously, this sort of information should be a bare minimum requirement for the bottled water industry.
So, where are the controls? Where are the regulations? Why am I paying all this money for bottled water that is similar to tap water, or actually is tap water? Why am I not addressing the fact that using tap water as a reference point for bottled water is troubling in itself? We’ll definitely get into that in the future, but here’s an EWG stat for you: Of the 36 million bottles of water sold in 2006, only a fifth were recycled. That’s alot of bottles ending up in the dumpsters or potentially polluting the very water sources we rely on. It should make us all give the subject of bottled water a little more serious thought.
The Thristy Berkey
