A review on arsenic in the environment: contamination, mobility, sources, and exposure

Abstract

Arsenic is one of the regulated hazard materials in the environment and a persistent pollutant creating environmental, agricultural and health issues and posing a serious risk to humans. In the present review, sources and mobility of As in various compartments of the environment (air, water, soil and sediment) around the World are comprehensively investigated, along with measures of health hazards. Multiple atomic spectrometric approaches have been applied for total and speciation analysis of As chemical species. The LoD values are basically under 1 μg L⁻¹, which is sufficient for the analysis of As or its chemical species in environmental samples. Both natural and anthropogenic sources contributed to As in air, while fine particulate matter tends to have higher concentrations of arsenic and results in high concentrations of As up to a maximum of 1660 ng m⁻³ in urban areas. Sources for As in natural waters (as dissolved or in particulate form) can be attributed to natural deposits, agricultural and industrial effluents, for which the maximum concentration of 2000 μg L⁻¹ was found in groundwater. Sources for As in soil can be the initial contents, fossil fuel burning products, industrial effluents, pesticides, and so on, with a maximum reported concentration up to 4600 mg kg⁻¹. Sources for As in sediments can be attributed to their reservoirs, with a maximum reported concentration up to 2500 mg kg⁻¹. It is notable that some reported concentrations of As in the environment are several times higher than permissible limits. However, many aspects of arsenic environmental chemistry including contamination of the environment, quantification, mobility, removal and health hazards are still unclear.