Naturlig förekomst av arsenik i grundvattnet – En kartläggning av problemet och dess hälsoeffekter på människan
(2012) MVEK02 20121Studies in Environmental Science
- Abstract
- Arsenic is an element and has a natural part in the earth with a content of 1,5-2,0 mg/kg in the earth crust. Arsenic occurs naturally in the bedrock and the Swedish bedrock contains anything from 1,0-40 mg/kg.
Arsenic is more poisonous in its inorganic form than in its organic. The two most common types of inorganic arsenic are arsenite and arsenate. Arsenite (AsIII) is the most acute poisonous because of its tendency to enter the cell through the uptake system of glycerol. When the arsenite is in the cell it blocks the thiols, which leads to the fact that the cell’s metabolism is knocked out. Arsenate (AsV) is also a very poisonous type, and it harms the cell by entering it through the uptake system of phosphate where it prevents the... (More) - Arsenic is an element and has a natural part in the earth with a content of 1,5-2,0 mg/kg in the earth crust. Arsenic occurs naturally in the bedrock and the Swedish bedrock contains anything from 1,0-40 mg/kg.
Arsenic is more poisonous in its inorganic form than in its organic. The two most common types of inorganic arsenic are arsenite and arsenate. Arsenite (AsIII) is the most acute poisonous because of its tendency to enter the cell through the uptake system of glycerol. When the arsenite is in the cell it blocks the thiols, which leads to the fact that the cell’s metabolism is knocked out. Arsenate (AsV) is also a very poisonous type, and it harms the cell by entering it through the uptake system of phosphate where it prevents the phosphate from hydrolysing energy (ATP). As a consequence the cell dies from lack of energy.
Due to the natural presence of arsenic in the Swedish bedrock, the Swedish groundwater is contaminated. The municipal drinking water is well under the limit of 10 µg/l water. This because of the Swedish food law (2006:804) which states that drinking water should be as controlled and protected as the food is. However, private wells and water sources that are not connected to the municipal water supplies are not included in the law and are therefore unprotected. There is nothing that guarantees the quality of that water, only the general recommendations from the Department of Health in Sweden.
The health effects of arsenic are several forms of cancer, for example in the bladder, the lungs and in the skin. When being long-term exposed to arsenic containing drinking water it is common to develop skin deceases. One of them is pigmentation and thickening of the skin, which often develops into skin cancer.
Bengals, an area that include Bangladesh and the Indian region of the West Bengal, suffer from arsenic poisoned drinking water. Wells have been drilled through sediments which contains arsenic and the consequence is that every year more than 200 000 persons die in that region from cancer caused by arsenic drinking water. Research is being made in order to find a way to help the injured people and to help them get healthy drinking water.
There are different ways to purify the water from arsenic. One of them is the ion exchange technique where the ion exchangers attract the arsenic ions and releases other harmless ions. Another technique is adsorption filter which adsorbs the arsenic ions through the surface complexation or through electrostatic forces. Both of the techniques purify water from arsenic up to at least 98 % according to a rapport from the Department of Health in Sweden. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/3402246
- author
- Larsson, Emilia LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MVEK02 20121
- year
- 2012
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 3402246
- date added to LUP
- 2013-01-21 16:33:22
- date last changed
- 2013-01-21 16:33:22
@misc{3402246,
abstract = {{Arsenic is an element and has a natural part in the earth with a content of 1,5-2,0 mg/kg in the earth crust. Arsenic occurs naturally in the bedrock and the Swedish bedrock contains anything from 1,0-40 mg/kg.
Arsenic is more poisonous in its inorganic form than in its organic. The two most common types of inorganic arsenic are arsenite and arsenate. Arsenite (AsIII) is the most acute poisonous because of its tendency to enter the cell through the uptake system of glycerol. When the arsenite is in the cell it blocks the thiols, which leads to the fact that the cell’s metabolism is knocked out. Arsenate (AsV) is also a very poisonous type, and it harms the cell by entering it through the uptake system of phosphate where it prevents the phosphate from hydrolysing energy (ATP). As a consequence the cell dies from lack of energy.
Due to the natural presence of arsenic in the Swedish bedrock, the Swedish groundwater is contaminated. The municipal drinking water is well under the limit of 10 µg/l water. This because of the Swedish food law (2006:804) which states that drinking water should be as controlled and protected as the food is. However, private wells and water sources that are not connected to the municipal water supplies are not included in the law and are therefore unprotected. There is nothing that guarantees the quality of that water, only the general recommendations from the Department of Health in Sweden.
The health effects of arsenic are several forms of cancer, for example in the bladder, the lungs and in the skin. When being long-term exposed to arsenic containing drinking water it is common to develop skin deceases. One of them is pigmentation and thickening of the skin, which often develops into skin cancer.
Bengals, an area that include Bangladesh and the Indian region of the West Bengal, suffer from arsenic poisoned drinking water. Wells have been drilled through sediments which contains arsenic and the consequence is that every year more than 200 000 persons die in that region from cancer caused by arsenic drinking water. Research is being made in order to find a way to help the injured people and to help them get healthy drinking water.
There are different ways to purify the water from arsenic. One of them is the ion exchange technique where the ion exchangers attract the arsenic ions and releases other harmless ions. Another technique is adsorption filter which adsorbs the arsenic ions through the surface complexation or through electrostatic forces. Both of the techniques purify water from arsenic up to at least 98 % according to a rapport from the Department of Health in Sweden.}},
author = {{Larsson, Emilia}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Naturlig förekomst av arsenik i grundvattnet – En kartläggning av problemet och dess hälsoeffekter på människan}},
year = {{2012}},
}