Arsenic and water quality challenges in South America

A. PÉREZ CARRERA; A, FERNÁNDEZ CIRELLI

Water sustainability in arid regions

Springer

Lugar: Berlín; Año: 2010; p. 275 - 292

The presence of arsenic in soils and water is a threat to public health andagricultural activities because this toxic element poses contamination risks to plants,animals, and humans. Central Argentina (northern area of department of Union,province of C¨®rdoba) and northern Chile, (El Loa, II Region de Antofagasta) aretwo of the areas most affected in the world and are representative of the arseniccontamination problem in arid and semiarid regions in South America. In bothareas, arsenic levels in water are above the World Health Organization guidelinesfor human consumption (10 ¦Ìg/L), and health effects in both sites have differentmanifestations. Nevertheless, the general trend in epidemiological studies is to finda relationship between chronic arsenic ingestion and cancer occurrence. Scarce dataare available in most regions of South America. Environmental monitoring is not acommon practice in many countries and should be implemented to verify that currentenvironmental quality norms are met, carry out baseline studies to obtain thenecessary data for developing contamination control tools, and estimate the population¡¯sexposure to arsenic. Conveying information to the population about arsenicwater contamination and possible solutions is central to overcoming the problem.