Chemistry in Earth Sciences

A global scourge: arsenic contamination of water

One hundred million people worldwide are estimated to consume water that is too rich in arsenic, a natural pollutant, and skin lesions and cancers have appeared in large numbers in Southeast Asia. This element is also naturally present in some French springs and aquifers. The use of deep wells in Asian SE has increased its concentration and led to the greatest poisoning in human history, according to WHO. In Bangladesh alone, a quarter of total mortality is related to arsenicosis.

Laurent Charlet and his collaborators at ISTerre have been working for fifteen years to understand this biogeochemical problem in India, Nepal and Laos, but also in the laboratory and ESRF/ILL. Purification methods are currently being studied in the group, based on the use of bionanocomposites that recover waste from local industry.

– French article in "Pour la Science" (October 2011, p.76-81), "Un fléau mondial: la contamination à l’eau par l’arsenic" (dernière consultation le 02/04/2019), résume cette problématique.