Food Forensics. Mike Adams

ARSENIC (As)

      ATOMIC NUMBER: 33

      GROUP 15: NITROGEN AND PHOSPHOROUS

      The very mention of the element arsenic evokes thoughts of its notorious role as a poison in the commission of murder, often incited by passion, jealousy, or the quest for power. This use, long captured in literature and the infamous crimes of centuries past, continues today.

      Yet in modern times, the broader impact of arsenic as a chronic, cumulative contaminate in water, food, and the air eclipses the significance of acute, deliberate poisoning. Arsenic does not always kill so quickly. It is a known carcinogen that has been linked to tumors formed in the skin, lungs, bladder, kidneys, and digestive tract²⁶ as well as the lymphatic and hematopoietic systems²⁷ in both humans and animals. Arsenic’s numerous detrimental health effects have been well documented to include diabetes, heart disease, cardiovascular issues, respiratory distress, impaired neurological development, and even depression. Arsenic toxicity has also been linked to increased infant mortality and early developmental issues.

      Notably, arsenic comes in two forms: organic and inorganic. Defined by their bonds with carbon and hydrogen, the organic forms of arsenic are largely considered harmless. The inorganic forms of arsenic widely used in industrial applications, which are typically bound to elements such as oxygen, sulfur, or chloride, are the varieties associated with arsenic’s poisonous and carcinogenic effects. Common inorganic forms of arsenic include arsenic trioxide (a common industrial by-product also used in some medical treatments), chromate copper arsenate (widely used as a wood preservative that also acts as an insecticide), and pesticides. Lead arsenate, calcium arsenate, “Paris Green” (copper acetoarsenite), and sodium arsenate are all pesticides derived from inorganic arsenic.

      Arsenic in drinking water

      The tainting of well-water supplies across the globe with arsenic trioxide is a mounting catastrophic problem affecting more than 137 million people who have been exposed to levels exceeding 10 ppb in drinking water, the standard set by both the United Nations WHO and the EPA. A geological study conducted by Peter Ravenscroft at the University of Cambridge further discovered that some 57 million people are drinking water at peak contamination rates of more than 50 ppb—putting them at a serious risk for cancer and other health effects.²⁸

      This problem with arsenic contamination in water is most concentrated in Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal, where nearly half the population drinks from contaminated sources after decades of Western aid directed the construction of tube wells that tapped directly into arsenic-tainted water reservoirs.²⁹ Because of this, Bangladesh has 27 million people drinking from sources that contain greater than 50 ppb of arsenic, while West Bengal and a few other areas of India have a combined 11 million people exposed to carcinogenic levels of arsenic-tainted drinking water.

      An astounding 80 million people in this region drink water containing more than 10 ppb of arsenic. Bangladesh is considered the “biggest arsenic catastrophe in the world,”³⁰ where fifty-nine out of sixty-four districts are affected, and more than half the total population is at risk of arsenic contamination. This repeated exposure to arsenic is known as arsenicosis, which is typically diagnosed via visible skin lesions, although symptoms can also include dehydration, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, dark urine, delirium, vertigo, shock, and eventually death.

      A study carried out in Bangladesh also confirmed a link between high arsenic exposure and anemia, a condition in which a person lacks healthy red blood cells and suffers from inadequate oxygen delivery to the body’s cells and tissues.³¹

      Other parts of the world face significant arsenic levels in drinking water as well. Another 5.6 million people in China and an astonishing 3 million in the United States also drink water that’s heavily contaminated with arsenic. Several millions more across Southeast Asia and the Pacific Region, Russia, the Middle East, South America, and other pockets of the world are exposed to arsenic in their drinking water.³²

      While lakes, streams, and groundwater remain unregulated for arsenic, the EPA has limited public drinking water sources to 10 ppb. Despite this, several thousand water districts across the United States continue to contain dangerously high levels of arsenic.

      Arsenic in the food chain and biosphere

      Arsenic has thoroughly contaminated our food chain and the environment. Chronic exposure to arsenic compounds in food—even in low doses over time—has been definitively linked with the development of cancers, especially in the skin, liver, bladder, and lungs.³³

      The ability of inorganic arsenic to destroy and kill has also made it an important and widespread element in a cocktail of pesticides as well as an important wood preservative that doubles as an insecticide. As a result of the widespread use of agricultural and industrial arsenic compounds, arsenic has entered the soil and our surrounding environment at nearly every conceivable point—ultimately tainting the world’s food supply.

      In addition to organic arsenic compounds that are frequently found in small amounts in many foods, a number of inorganic arsenic varieties have contaminated production crops that feed America and the world. The real sources of concern are those accumulated from widespread pesticide and fertilizer use, runoff from industrial production, and—a factor of greater importance than most people realize —from pressure-treated wood.

      Arsenic as a pesticide

      Before the development of dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT), lead arsenate—a deadly cocktail of the heavy metals lead and arsenic—was one of the most widely used pesticides, dominating agriculture in the first half of the twentieth century. Along with other arsenic-based pesticides like calcium arsenate and “Paris Green,” arsenic was used to control moths and other pests, especially in apple orchards and other fruit trees as well as cotton crops—despite the fact health concerns over arsenic residues had been officially acknowledged as far back as 1919.³⁴ Other inorganic varieties and a few organic varieties of arsenic were used for mosquito control and as insecticides, rodenticides, and herbicides sprayed on everything from curbs to sidewalks to road perimeters.

      In addition to pesticide applications, a number of phosphate and micronutrient fertilizers—even those meant for organic food production—have been found to contain elevated arsenic and heavy metal levels, further contaminating many soils.³⁵

      The EPA’s first comprehensive report on arsenic pesticides in 1972 listed numerous compounds and their known uses and hazards.³⁶ They include lead arsenate, “Paris Green,” calcium arsenate, basic copper arsenate, ammonium arsenate, arsenic acid, arsenic pentoxide, arsenic trioxide, sodium pyroarsenate, sodium arsenate, and potassium arsenate, as well as several harmful “arsenic-containing organic compounds used in formulating pesticides,” including cacodylic acid—just to name a few.

      According to the EPA, although DDT replaced much of the use of lead arsenate in the post-war period, that later reversed after federal regulations severely limited the use of DDT and other organochlorine insecticides. Subsequently, the use of some arsenicals as pesticide resumed by the late 1960s. By 1969, annual production of arsenic trioxide had increased to 66,000 tons. Meanwhile, more than 4 million pounds of lead arsenate and some 2 million pounds of calcium arsenate were also produced for industrial