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Safe Levels of Arsenic in Drinking Water

While arsenic-rich water adequately serves nondrinking purposes such as cleaning and washing, drinking water needs to have low levels of arsenic for governments to consider it safe to consume.

  1. Identification

    • The Environmental Protection Agency allows no more than 10 parts arsenic per billion parts of drinking water in public water systems, according to the EPA website.

    History

    • The EPA lowered the allowable concentration of arsenic in water from 50 to 10 parts per billion on January 22, 2001. However, this rule did not become mandatory until Jan. 23, 2006.

    Sources

    • Arsenic comes from industrial runoff, but it also naturally occurs in rocks and soil, reports the World Health Organization. Water erodes arsenic-containing rocks, which then dissolve in water that transports the arsenic around the world.

    Function

    • The safety limit of arsenic in water aims to reduce the long-term effects of arsenic poisoning, such as vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

    Prevention/Solution

    • Systems to remove arsenic are expensive and not effective for small communities or single homes. As of 2009, the best solution for households not on a public water system seems to be color-coding any private wells with low arsenic levels (so they do not get mixed up with other water sources).

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