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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Evaluation of two new arsenic field test kits capable of detecting arsenic water concentrations close to 10 microg/L.

Authors: Steinmaus, Craig M; George, Christine M; Kalman, David A; Smith, Allan H

Published In Environ Sci Technol, (2006 May 15)

Abstract: Millions of people worldwide are exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water. Arsenic field test kits may offer a cost-effective approach for measuring these exposures in the field, although the accuracy of some kits used in the past has been poor. In this study, arsenic concentrations were measured in 136 water sources in western Nevada using two relatively new arsenic test kits and compared to laboratory measurements using atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (AFS). Spearman's rank correlation coefficients comparing the Quick Arsenic and Hach EZ kits to laboratory measurements were 0.96 (p < 0.001) and 0.95 (p < 0.001), respectively. When analyzed in seven exposure categories (0-9, 10-19, 20-49, 50-99, 100-199, 200-499, and > or = 500 microg/L), test kit and AFS measurements were in the same category in 71% (Quick Arsenic) and 62% (Hach EZ) of samples, and within one category of each other in 99% (Quick Arsenic) and 97% (Hach EZ) of samples. Both kits identified all water samples with high arsenic concentrations (> 15 microg/L) as being above the United States Environmental Protection Agency's drinking water standard and the World Health Organization's guideline value for arsenic of 10 microg/L. These results suggestthatthese easily portable kits can be used to identify water sources with high arsenic concentrations and may provide an important tool for arsenic surveillance and remediation programs.

PubMed ID: 16749706 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Arsenic/analysis*; Environmental Monitoring*; Fresh Water; Guidelines as Topic; Nevada; Sensitivity and Specificity; Spectrometry, Fluorescence/methods; Water Pollution, Chemical/analysis*; Water Supply/analysis*; Water Supply/standards*; World Health Organization

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