Health effects of arsenic in drinking water: Research needs

Fowie, John R.

doi:10.1007/bf01783631

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…EPA is working with its Science Advisory Board to develop a research programme for arsenic along these lines of inquiry (Fowle, 1992). However, despite the research that may be undertaken by EPA and others, resolution of many of the important uncertainties on mechanism may not occur in the next three to five years.…”

Section: Conclusion and Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk assessment for ingested inorganic arsenic: A review and status report

North

1992

Environ Geochem Health

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Arsenic presents several unique problems in risk assessment. First, there is no good animal model for arsenic as a carcinogen, although in humans arsenic exposure through inhalation is judged to cause lung cancer and ingested inorganic arsenic is judged to cause skin cancer. Second, detoxification of arsenic through methylation is believed to be important, but the mechanisms and the quantitative relationships are not yet understood.EPA provided a risk assessment for ingested inorganic arsenic in its 1984 Health Assessment Document and a revised version in 1988. In both cases EPA calculated a cancer potency or slope factor using epidemiological data from Taiwan. EPA's standard or default risk assessment procedure is to use the linear coefficient from the multistage model in order to calculate cancer risk. This procedure was challenged by the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) in a report to the Administrator in September of 1989. The SAB recommended that EPA "(1) develop a revised risk assessment based on estimates of the delivered dose of non-detoxified arsenic to target tissues, and (2) consider the potential reduction in cancer risk due to detoxification in establishing an MCL for arsenic".This paper will draw upon the author's experience with the SAB to summarise major issues in arsenic risk assessment and to examine how these issues might be resolved through further research.

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Section: Conclusion and Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk assessment for ingested inorganic arsenic: A review and status report

North

1992

Environ Geochem Health

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“…Arsenic has been well known as a toxic element since ancient times (Ulman et al 1998;Carrillo and Drever 1998;Fowle 1992). It is introduced into the body through food, drinking water and ambient air (Ulman et al 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feldspar for the Treatment of As(III) Contaminated Water

Singh

Tiwary

Tewary

2002

Water Quality Research Journal

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This paper addresses the treatment of arsenic(III) contaminated water by adsorption technique using an unconventional adsorbent, feldspar. The removal of As(III) is dependent on contact time, concentration, pH and temperature of the solution, particle size of the feldspar and the agitation rate of the system. The maximum adsorption, i.e., 90.19%, was achieved after 100 min at the arsenic concentration 13.35 µmol L-1, with 40 g L-1 of feldspar of particle size ≈200 µm at pH 6.5, temperature 20 ± 0.5 °C and agitation rate 125 rpm. The pH of the system has played a key role in the uptake, and pH 6.5 has been determined as optimum. The process of uptake is exothermic and follows the first-order adsorption rate expression. The applicability of the Langmuir isotherm was tested for the As(III)-feldspar system at optimum conditions. The diffusion coefficients as well as thermodynamic parameters have been determined to explain the results. A model has been developed to predict the uptake capacity of the adsorbent under certain given conditions.

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Health implications of arsenic in drinking water

Pontius¹,

Brown²,

Chen³

1994

Journal AWWA

216

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Definitive answers regarding arsenic health risks at low exposures will be elusive without additional research. The adequacy of the current maximum contaminant level (MCL) for arsenic is being evaluated by the US Environmental Protection Agency. If recent theoretical estimates of chronic effects and cancer risks prove accurate, the current MCL may not effectively protect health. Knowledge of arsenic pharmacokinetics and mechanisms in humans, however, is not complete enough to provide a definitive answer, and current epidemiologic evidence is too inconsistent and too fraught with uncertainty regarding arsenic exposure to be helpful in assessing low‐level risks.

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Health effects of arsenic in drinking water: Research needs

Cited by 7 publications

References 14 publications

Risk assessment for ingested inorganic arsenic: A review and status report

Risk assessment for ingested inorganic arsenic: A review and status report

Feldspar for the Treatment of As(III) Contaminated Water

Health implications of arsenic in drinking water

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