Deadly waters run deep: the global arsenic crisis

Abstract

As any reader of detective stories knows, arsenic is the murder's poison of choice. While deliberate poisonings may be rare, we nevertheless have a killer in our midst. Over recent years, the growing global population and lack of safe drinking water have led to the exploitation of groundwater resources in many parts of the world. In so doing, we have inadvertently tapped–literally–into another problem: arsenic-rich waters from deep-water aquifers. The implications will be with us for many years to come.