Environmental chemistry of arsenic

In the Asian region, in the case of environmental contamination of various media by heavy metals, it is the element itself which is toxic (see Chapter 11) however the element speciation is very important for some metals, including mercury, lead, and especially arsenic. Organometallic compounds are often of greatly different toxicity than simple inorganic ions, and mercury and lead are the typical examples (see Sections 4 and 5). The opposite situation exists for arsenic, which enters the environment 

Millions of people in rural areas of Bangladesh are being slowly poisoned as they drink water contaminated with small but potentially fatal quantities of arsenic. Estimates by the World Bank claim that from 18 to 50 million people out of a total population of about 120 million in the country are at risk. Thousands are already showing symptoms of poisoning. Nineteen rural districts covering an area of 500 km near the border of Bangladesh and India have arsenic-contaminated wells. Of the 

000 tube wells tested so far, 25% have dangerous levels of arsenic, 40% have unsafe levels and only 35% were safe or below 0.01 mg L of arsenic. The World Health Organization recommends a level of 0.01 mg L of arsenic (lOppb) but the governments of Bangladesh and India regard 0.05 mg, a level five times higher than the WHO standard, as acceptable. 

Similar results can be shown for the whole belt between India and Thailand. Biogeochemical mapping in this vast area is a great challenge for present and future 

These calculated data are in agreement with HM monitoring results that have been shown for the beginning of the 1990s in soils surrounding the Mae Moh Power Plant 

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Hsu PH (1989) Aluminum hydroxides and oxyhydroxides. In Dixon JB, Weed SB (ed) Minerals in soil environments, 2nd edn, pp 331-378 Inskeep WP, McDermott TR, Fendorf S (2002) Arsenic (V)/(III) cycling in soils and natural waters chemical and microbiological processes. In Frankenberger WT Jr (ed) Environmental chemistry of arsenic. Marcel Dekker, New York, pp 183-215... 

Clifford, D.A. and Ghurye, G.L. (2002) Metal-oxide adsorption, ion exchange, and coagulation-microfiltration for arsenic removal from water, in Environmental Chemistry of Arsenic (ed. W.T. Frankenberger Jr.), Marcel Dekker, New York, pp. 217-45. 

Handbook of Plant and Crop Physiology Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, edited by Mohammad Pessarakli Environmental Chemistry of Arsenic, edited by William T. Frankenberger, Jr. Enzymes in the Environment Activity, Ecology, and Applications, edited by Richard G. Burns and Richard P. Dick... 

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