This Moss Naturally Clears Arsenic From Water

Researchers want to implant a poison-fighting moss in contaminated Swedish wetlands.

Mitigating dietary arsenic exposure: Current status in the United States and recommendations for an improved path forward

Inorganic arsenic (iAs) is a well-characterized carcinogen, and recent epidemiologic studies have linked chronic exposures to non-cancer health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, skin lesions and respiratory disorders.

An Unlikely Driver of Evolution: Arsenic

Arsenic can poison people today through exposure to pesticides and pollution. But arsenic is also naturally present in the water and soil in some parts of the world. The Atacama Desert, sitting on top of arsenic-rich volcanic rock, is one of them. The concentration of arsenic in Atacama drinking water can be 20 times higher than the level considered safe for human consumption.

Arsenic And California Wine: Do You Need To Worry?

But before you pour your wine down the sink, consider this: even arsenic poisoning at levels below what will kill you have unmistakable symptoms: brownish green spots on the hands, feet and sometimes trunk as well as white lines in the fingernails. These can appear at low levels of arsenic intake, and the risk increases as arsenic intake increases. If all the oenophiles in Napa Valley and across the country were consuming worrisome dangerously high levels of arsenic, it would be hard to miss those spots, as well as symptoms such as headaches, confusion, drowsiness and diarrhea.

Arsenic In Agriculture Enjoys Comeback In Poultry Feed, Pesticides

Whether low levels of exposure to arsenic, such as the amounts most commonly found in food and water, are really hazardous to human health is not clear.

Arsenic’s Lethal Legacy: How A Notorious Poison Permeates Our Food And Drink

While arsenic has been famously slipped into the food or drink of unsuspecting spouses and royalty for centuries, today it’s more likely to be fed to poultry, applied to crops, leached from pressure-treated wood, puffed into the air by coal-fired power plants and drilled free from bedrock.

Did the FDA Admit That 70% of U.S. Chickens Contain Arsenic?

The Food and Drug Administration actually said some chicken meat may contain small amounts of arsenic.

Drinking Arsenic-Laced Water Is Like Smoking For Decades, Study Finds

Groundwater in many countries, including the U.S., has naturally high levels of arsenic.

FDA Proposes Limit on Arsenic in Infant Rice Cereal

Exposure to the toxin can cause lower performance on some child developmental tests.

In Photos: Bangladesh's Arsenic Crisis — 'The Largest Mass Poisoning of a Population in History'

A Human Rights Watch report shows how access to clean water remains a severe problem for millions of Bangladeshis two decades after gaining international attention.

Many U.S. Drinking Water Wells Contaminated with Arsenic, Other Elements

Private drinking water wells are unmonitored and unregulated, but often contaminated with potentially dangerous elements.

Should we worry about arsenic in baby cereal and drinking water?

Even though most people don’t know much about chemicals in general or poisons in particular, virtually everyone knows that arsenic is bad. In the first century, arsenic was already known to be a deadly poison . However, it was the Borgias in the 14th and 15th centuries who perfected its use to eliminate opponents in order to increase their wealth and power. Arsenic is naturally occurring in groundwater in many places around the globe, and therefore in our food supply. This is why you might have seen reports in the news about the presence of arsenic in baby cereals made with rice.

So There's Arsenic in Our Rice—Now What?

Arsenic is a common, naturally-occurring element. The metalloid substance, famous for its tasteless, odorless and occasionally lethal properties, sits at number 33 in the periodic table. Arsenic arises in both organic and inorganic forms. One source of organic, dietary arsenic is seafood, particularly shellfish. Most studies of arsenic's toxicity have focused on its inorganic forms, including lead-arsenate, used in U.S. pesticides until the 1980s, and other chemical preparations still used in fertilizers, wood treatment and for other purposes today.

The Arsenic Controversy: Can Wine Be Compared To Water?

The fact of the matter is, on top of judging wine by the standards of water and using some sort-of sketchy results to do so, the lawsuit has turned into a public relations nightmare for the wineries named. Is that really fair?

The Arsenic in Our Drinking Water

The baby with the runny nose, the infant with a stubborn cough — respiratory infections in small children are a familiar family travail. Now scientists suspect that these ailments — and many others far more severe — may be linked in part to a toxic element common in drinking water.

Was Napoleon Poisoned?

Chief among the theories for the exiled emperor’s death is arsenic poisoning—an idea reinforced by the remarkable condition of his body when it was exhumed in 1840 for reburial in Paris. Because it is also toxic to microorganisms, arsenic slows down the decomposition of human tissue, a phenomenon described as “arsenic mummification.” Subsequent 20th-century tests of preserved locks of Napoleon’s hair tested positive for arsenic.