Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 5
Nanoparticles for Treatment of Arsenic
Chuanyong Jing and Xiaoguang Meng
5.1
Introduction
Arsenic is a common pollutant in waters in many countries such as Bangladesh,
India, Ghana, Chile, Argentina, Philippines, China, Mexico, Poland, Hungry, Japan, and
the USA (Smedley and Kinniburgh, 2002). Arsenic treatment technology is currently of
great urgency and high priority in the US and elsewhere in the world because of its
apparent carcinogenicity and severe impact on public health. Even in low concentration,
chronic exposure to arsenic may cause various cancers in skin, bladder, kidney, and
heart disease (NRC, 1999). People who consume waters with 3 μg/L arsenic daily have
about a 1 in 1,000 risk of developing bladder or lung cancer during their lifetime. At 10
μg/L, the risk is more than 3 in 1,000 (NRC, 2001). Arsenic in drinking water may have
affected more than 100 million people worldwide. The global human population may
reach 10 billion by 2050 making significant demands on drinking water and accelerating
environmental change. Groundwater represents one of the most important stable sources
of drinking water. There is an immediate need to provide cost-effective arsenic treatment
technologies to large populations.
Arsenic is a common contaminant in water supplies in many areas of the United
States. Approximately 4 percent of drinking water systems are expected to exceed an
arsenic concentration of 10 μg/L (Frey and Edwards, 1997). Generally, more arsenic is
found in groundwater than in surface water. Approximately 10% of 30,000 groundwater
samples in the U.S. have an arsenic concentration higher than 10 μg/l (Welch et al.,
2000), and 7.6% of public water supply systems in the associated groundwater resource
exceed 10 μg/l of arsenic (Focazio et al., 1999). Groundwater is the main drinking water
source, especially for small and rural water utilities in the United States. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that 13 million U.S. residents are
exposed to drinking water containing > 10 μg/L of arsenic, the U.S. standard effective as
of January 2006.
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