Sunday, April 4, 1999

State urges wells be tested for arsenic

By DIETER BRADBURY
Staff Writer

© 1999 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

State officials are urging all Maine residents with private wells to test their water for arsenic, following a new study that strengthens the link between arsenic exposure and cancers of the lungs and bladder.

Arsenic facts : Arsenic is a poisonous, silvery-white chemical element that is widely distributed in the Earth's crust. It is most toxic in its inorganic form and is usually found in combination with other elements such as oxygen, chlorine or sulfur. Drinking water and food are the major sources of arsenic exposure for humans. For centuries, arsenic was used as a poison or, in smaller doses, for medicinal purposes. In the Civil War, the bodies of dead soldiers were embalmed with arsenic for shipment back to their home states, including Maine. Compounds with arsenic were once sold as a cosmetic to produce a pale complexion. Until the 1960s, arsenic was used extensively as an herbicide on farm fields and rights of way for highways, railroads and power lines. Seventy-four percent of the arsenic produced now is used as a wood preservative. To have your well water tested for arsenic, contact the Maine Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory at 287-2727. Arsenic tests cost about $10 to $20.

The study, sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, found that people who drink water with levels of arsenic at the present U.S. drinking water standard may have a lifetime cancer risk of 1 in 1,000. Some scientists who participated in the study said the risk could be even higher.

The researchers urged the Environmental Protection Agency to lower its drinking-water arsenic standard as soon as possible to provide more protection for public health.
Robert Marvinney, Maine state geologist, said as many as 25 percent of the private wells in Maine may contain more arsenic than the new standard EPA is expected to propose.
"It's a big issue that everybody should be concerned about," Marvinney said. "We can't stress enough that everybody should have their well tested."

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element found in the Earth's crust. It can be released into groundwater, which seeps through underground rocks and soil and supplies water to wells.

Long-term exposure to moderate doses of arsenic can cause cancer, while short-term exposure to higher doses produces stomach or intestinal irritation, blood abnormalities and tingling in the nervous system.

In the 1970s, the EPA adopted a standard that drinking water should contain no more than 50 parts per billion of arsenic. If a community water supply contains higher levels than that, the water is supposed to be filtered and treated to reduce the arsenic contamination.

Only a handful of Maine's public water systems have had to take that step. But arsenic contamination in private wells has been widespread. Marvinney said detectable levels of arsenic have been found in half of the 6,900 wells tested by the Department of Human Service's health and environmental lab.
One in 10 of those wells had arsenic concentrations above the EPA standard.

Public concerns about arsenic flared up recently in Northport, after residents of the town's Bayside neighborhood, just south of Belfast, tested their wells and found arsenic levels up to 20 times the EPA standard.

Eleanor Handler, one of the affected residents, said she and her husband were stunned by the test results.
"It's frightening," said Handler, an obstetrician with a practice in Belfast. "We'd never really heard of arsenic problems in the water before."

James Cummings, the Northport town clerk, whose water also has high levels of arsenic, said about 150 households have had their wells tested, and roughly 20 exceeded the EPA standard. He said most of the problem wells are concentrated in the Bayside neighborhood, which overlooks Penobscot Bay.

"Most anybody that's a little sensible has got a concern about this," he said.

Some people have begun drinking bottled water or purchased arsenic treatment systems for their homes, and Bayside residents have organized to lobby for the extension of a public water main into their neighborhood.

Many residents of the Buxton-Hollis area also drink water from wells with treatment systems, following the discovery of widespread arsenic problems in those towns and other nearby communities in 1993.

Concerns about the health effects of arsenic in Maine water have been heightened by new research findings.
When EPA set its 50-part-per-billion standard two decades ago, the agency believed the major long-term health threat from arsenic was a mild form of skin cancer. In 1988, the agency reviewed the research findings on arsenic and reaffirmed the drinking water standard.

But a study released late last month by the National Academy of Sciences found that drinking water with high levels of arsenic can also cause fatal forms of cancer in the bladder and lungs.

The study found that a person has about a 1-in-1,000 chance of getting bladder cancer if he drinks two liters of water containing arsenic at the EPA standard of 50 parts per billion every day for 70 years. Some members of the academy's research team interpret the data to show a cancer risk as high as one in 100.

The authors of the study noted that human sensitivity to arsenic seems to vary with genetics, metabolism, diet, health, sex and possible other factors. They also said more research is needed to understand the effects of low doses of arsenic and the mechanism by which it induces cancer in the human body.

Dr. Andrew Smith, the state toxicologist for Maine, said he is concerned because the major health threat from arsenic is no longer a mild form of skin cancer but a fatal form of the disease that attacks internal organs.

He also noted that a 1-in-1,000 chance of cancer is a relatively high degree of risk compared to the one-in-10,000 or lower risk that EPA regulations normally aim to achieve.
"This really underscores the importance of testing for everyone who is on a private water supply," he said.
Smith noted that arsenic has no odor or taste at the concentrations found in Maine wells.

To raise public awareness of the threat and find wells with high levels of arsenic, the state health and environmental lab has begun sampling for arsenic whenever well water is tested as part of a real estate transaction in Maine.
Homebuyers with wells that exceed the EPA standard are referred to Smith's office.

Smith said he always warns people not to boil water with arsenic, because that will increase the concentration.
He said any other advice he gives depends on the level of arsenic in the well and residents' feelings about the projected risks.

Smith noted that bottled water for drinking and cooking provides a relatively inexpensive solution, and that arsenic filtration systems can be purchased from water treatment dealers.

Prices for the average under-sink treatment system start at about $900, according to Jeff Twitchell, a vice president of Air and Water Quality Inc., a water treatment company in Windham.

Twitchell said the systems remove about 90 to 95 percent of the arsenic by forcing water through a special membrane that filters out the arsenic molecules.

If the arsenic testing done in Maine to date is any indication, residents from every corner of the state may be in the market for treatment systems or bottled water supplies someday.
Marvinney, the state geologist, said arsenic has been found in every type of geologic formation in Maine, from granite bedrock to sandy fill.

Geologists have found no correlations between arsenic levels and landscape types. It is just as likely to be found under a parking lot as under a lawn, field or forest, Marvinney said.
Studies in Maine have also produced no links between arsenic levels and other characteristics like hardness, acidity or concentrations of copper, lead, zinc and other metals in water.

The seemingly random nature of arsenic occurence has led geologists to believe that both natural and human sources may be responsible for the problem wells.

Marvinney noted that arsenic or its compounds have many historical uses. Arsenic was once a common agricultural pesticide and an agent for tanning hides, embalming corpses and preventing road salt from caking.

"There are so many potential man-made sources that they cannot simply be excused," he said.

State geologists plan to study the wells in the Bayside area of Northport this year to learn more about arsenic sources.
Smith, the state toxicologist, also plans to investigate the arsenic question further.

The federal Centers for Disease Control has agreed to provide up to $100,000 for a study with Smith on whether arsenic is absorbed through the skin from baths or showers.
The recent National Academy of Sciences study assumes that bathing is not a major source of arsenic for humans. But Smith said the question deserves further study.

"We want to look more closely at children, who spend more time in the bath and may be swallowing water there," he said.
No one in state government seems to know how many people who have found high levels of arsenic in their wells are buying bottled water or treatment systems.

That's partly because people on private wells fall between the cracks in Maine's regulatory system. The drinking water program in the Department of Human Services oversees public water systems but provides only technical assistance to private homeowners with their own wells.

Smith said public health officials are trying to spread the word about arsenic so people can act to protect themselves.
"With arsenic, we have a moderate health risk, but fortunately, it's something that's fairly easy to do something about," he said.