Soil Pollution Due to Irrigation with Arsenic-Contaminated Groundwater: Current State of Science

Abstract

Food with elevated arsenic concentrations is becoming widely recognized as a global threat to human health. This review describes the current state of knowledge of soil pollution derived from irrigation with arsenic-contaminated groundwater, highlighting processes controlling arsenic cycling in soils and resulting arsenic impacts on crop and human health. Irrigation practices utilized for both flooded and upland crops have the potential to load arsenic to soils, with a host of environmental and anthropogenic factors ultimately determining the fate of arsenic. Continual use of contaminated groundwater for irrigation may result in soils with concentrations sufficient to create dangerous arsenic concentrations in the edible portions of crops. Recent advances in low-cost water and soil management options show promise for mitigating arsenic impacts of polluted soils. Better understanding of arsenic transfer from soil to crops and the controls on long-term soil arsenic accumulation is needed to establish effective arsenic mitigation strategies within vulnerable agronomic systems.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi alleviate negative effects of arsenic‐induced stress on crop plants: A meta‐analysis

“…Considering the enrichment of As in crops, the anthropogenic contamination of soils arising from irrigation with As-contaminated groundwater plays a major role (Meharg & Zhao, 2012;Stahl, 2019). Recent soil As contamination at a large scale was mainly reported from Asia (e.g., Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, China), but also from many other countries worldwide (e.g., Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Greece, and the US), where groundwater is used for irrigation that exceeds the US-EPA recommended As threshold concentration of 10 μg/L (Gillispie, Sowers, Duckworth, & Polizzotto, 2015;Stahl, 2019). Bangladesh represents a sad example for the socioeconomic and health-related consequences of irrigation with As-contaminated water.…”

“…Where soil is contaminated with As or As‐contaminated water is used for irrigation, other crops like wheat (Norra et al., 2005; Roychowdhury, Uchino, Tokunaga, & Ando, 2002) or maize (Baig et al., 2011) accumulate As as well. Further information regarding As concentration variability in soil and crops from a range of locations where As‐contaminated groundwater is used for irrigation is provided elsewhere (e.g., Gillispie et al., 2015).…”

Identification of a New Heavy-Metal-Resistant Strain of Geobacillus stearothermophilus Isolated from a Hydrothermally Active Volcanic Area in Southern Italy

“…For example, arsenic and cadmium have been classified as carcinogenic compounds by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in both humans and animals [6,7], while the exposure to lead is responsible for 3% of cerebrovascular disease worldwide [8]. Therefore, reduction of heavy-metal pollution is actually among the greatest challenges of the new century [9][10][11].…”

Groundwater Pumping Is a Significant Unrecognized Contributor to Global Anthropogenic Element Cycles

“…In light of this, I estimate elemental loadings to groundwater‐irrigated soils in the United States and generate maps that can be used to identify agricultural areas likely receiving large inputs of nutrients or elements toxic to plants. With nearly 40% of the world's irrigated land under groundwater irrigation (Siebert et al ) it is important to characterize elemental fluxes to these soils as the delivery of groundwater solutes can affect crop yields (Panaullah et al ; Gillispie et al ) and ultimately impact global food supplies.…”