Yesterday in La Vanguardia, journalist Sílvia Oller reported that the City Councils of Ripoll and Campdevànol have recommended that their neighbors refrain from consuming tap water “continuously for drinking or cooking” due to the high levels of arsenic detected in these two areas of Catalonia. .
If the World Health Organization (WHO) sets the recommended limit for arsenic in drinking water at 10 µg/L; In these two municipalities it exceeds 10 micrograms per liter (10 µg/L), which leads us to ask two questions: what risks does it have for health? And is there a way to eliminate arsenic from water at home to prevent it from being toxic?
Arsenic, as explained by the WHO in a report, is a natural element of the Earth’s crust that is present at high levels in the groundwater of many countries. It is a very toxic element in its inorganic form and its greatest threat to public health lies in the use of contaminated water for drinking, preparing food and watering food crops (which is why it is also very present in rice, as you have probably already heard). .
Prolonged exposure to arsenic through the consumption of contaminated water and food can cause different types of cancer and skin lesions, in addition to being associated with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in some of the studies presented in recent years.
The WHO also explains that the first symptoms of prolonged exposure to high levels of inorganic arsenic are generally observed in the skin, which changes pigmentation, causing skin lesions and hardness and calluses to appear on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. These effects occur after a minimum exposure of approximately five years and can be precursors to skin cancer.
In addition, arsenic consumption is also associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes and infant mortality, lung diseases, myocardial infarctions, and kidney failure; and numerous studies have demonstrated the negative effects of arsenic exposure on cognitive development, intelligence and memory.
According to the WHO, the most useful and recommended thing to prevent arsenic toxicity is the implementation of a safe drinking water supply system in the affected community; but due to the drought that threatens us in the previously mentioned areas of Catalonia, the measure is not enough, which has led the authorities to recommend not drinking tap water at home.
There are some arsenic removal systems for the home, although it is not yet known if they are really effective. Among the technologies, oxidation, coagulation-precipitation, absorption, ion exchange and various membrane techniques stand out.
Just do a quick Google search to see that there are a growing number of effective and cheap options for removing arsenic from small and household supplies on the market, although evidence of the long-term effectiveness of these systems is lacking, the WHO explains. .
