Arsenic mining, production, and market trends

The United States has not intentionally mined and produced arsenic or its compounds since 1985 (Brooks, 2008). Currently, American demands for arsenic and its compounds are satisfied through imports. For 2002-2005, the United States primarily imported As(0)° from China and Japan, and AS2O3 mainly from China and Morocco. The United States consumed about 9 million worth of arsenic and its compounds in 2007 (Brooks, 2008). 

Inorganic arsenic was banned in US pesticides in the 1980s and 1990s (Welch et al., 2000), 590. In 1998, the production of CCA wood preservatives accounted for more than 90% of the AS2O3 used in the United States (Leist, Casey and Caridi, 2000), 126. However, as previously discussed in this chapter, the voluntary agreement between the US EPA and wood preservative manufacturers discontinued the use of CCA in virtually all American consumer products after 2003 (Wasson et al., 2005), 8865 (Townsend 

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