(Press-News.org) The report "Assessment of Arsenic Concentrations in Domestic Well Water, by Town, in Maine, 2005-09" and maps are posted online.
Potentially harmful arsenic levels have been found in private water wells in towns across Maine where elevated arsenic risks were not previously suspected. Arsenic levels in some private wells exceeded the federal safety standard for public drinking water by ten to one-hundred times or more, according to findings released today by the U.S. Geological Survey. The study is the largest of its kind in Maine.
"We found large differences in concentrations from well to well, even at the town level, so residents need to test their wells to know their arsenic level," said USGS scientist Martha Nielsen, who led the study in cooperation with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. "We are working with the Maine CDC to identify towns throughout the state where elevated arsenic levels are common but have gone mostly unnoticed."
"The USGS has been working nationwide for many years to test groundwater for arsenic," said Robert M. Lent, Director of the USGS Maine Water Science Center in Augusta. "Arsenic levels in this study are some of the highest we have seen in private wells," said Lent. "Nearly half of Maine's population use private wells for drinking water, so this issue quite literally hits home for many people."
"It only takes one person in a town to be an advocate and champion to encourage fellow citizens to have their wells tested. The variability in arsenic concentrations, even at the town level, shows that testing is crucial for homeowners in assessing personal risk," said Lent.
The Maine CDC is distributing posters and brochures to selected town offices based on the proportion of residents on private wells and information about the presence of wells with arsenic. The Maine CDC has worked in partnership with towns throughout Maine to prevent the spread of diseases.
"This mapping effort is helping us to better target our efforts to promote testing of private wells for arsenic," said State Toxicologist Andrew Smith with the Maine CDC. "Statewide only about 40 percent of private water well owners have tested for arsenic, so it is crucial that we target our resources to the highest risk areas and nearby areas where we lack data," said Smith.
For this study, scientists examined data from more than 11,000 wells in 530 cities, towns, and townships in Maine. Data came from water samples submitted to the Maine Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory between 2005 and 2009.
Arsenic levels ranged from less than the detection limit of 0.5 micrograms/liter (ug/L) to 3,100 ug/L. The federal safety standard for public drinking water is 10 ug/L.
Test results were summarized at the town level to produce maps showing arsenic concentrations by town where sufficient samples were collected. The maps provide a much greater spatial resolution of arsenic in private wells across the state than have previous efforts.
"This study confirmed many areas already known to have high levels of arsenic in groundwater and revealed for the first time, towns that should be further investigated," said Nielsen. "Several towns in eastern Washington and central Penobscot counties, and in the southern parts of Piscataquis and Somerset counties have elevated arsenic that is more widespread than we realized."
Even though the study included more than 11,000 wells, this is a relatively small sample of all the private wells in Maine.
"This study shows the difficulty of predicting arsenic concentrations at the local level and should signal to everyone with a private well that the only way to know about arsenic concentrations in their well is to have their water tested," said Nielsen.
Most towns with more than 20 wells in the database had at least one well with arsenic levels greater than the safety standard. In a few towns, more than 50 percent of the sampled wells had arsenic levels greater than the safety standard. In considering these data, it is important to understand that the wells do not represent a random sample of the state. These data, however, provide a better indicator of potential arsenic hotspots than any other dataset.
"Geology is probably the biggest factor in the distribution of arsenic in private wells," said Nielsen. "But the degree of local variability means that we can't simply use bedrock type to determine all the areas in the state where it is critical that people test their wells."
Drinking water with arsenic above safety standards has been linked to an increased risk for skin, bladder, and lung cancer; to reproductive and developmental problems; diabetes; and effects on the immune system. Private water wells are not regulated under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and well owners typically are responsible for testing the quality of their drinking water.
Elevated arsenic levels are not limited to Maine. A recent national USGS study found arsenic concentrations above the federal drinking water standard in more than 10 percent of private wells in New England's bedrock aquifers compared to about 7 percent of private wells nationwide.
INFORMATION:
Private well owners can contact the Maine Drinking Water Program for guidance and information about well maintenance, testing, and in-home water treatment options. Access the USGS Maine Water Science Center for more information about water in Maine. Information about water quality nationwide is found on the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Program site.
USGS provides science for a changing world. Visit USGS.gov, and follow us on Twitter @USGS and our other social media channels.
Subscribe to our news releases via e-mail, RSS or Twitter.
Links and contacts within this release are valid at the time of publication.
END
Researchers from Queen Mary, University of London, the University of Fribourg and the Paul Scherrer Institut (Villigen, Switzerland) have shown that a magnetically polarised current can be manipulated by electric fields.
Published this week in the journal Nature Materials, this important discovery opens up the prospect of simultaneously processing and storing data on electrons held in the molecular structure of computer chips - combining computer memory and processing power on the same chip.
"This is especially exciting, as this discovery has been made with flexible ...
Montreal, December 8, 2010 – Zen meditation has many health benefits, including a reduced sensitivity to pain. According to new research from the Université de Montréal, meditators do feel pain but they simply don't dwell on it as much. These findings, published in the month's issue of Pain, may have implications for chronic pain sufferers, such as those with arthritis, back pain or cancer.
"Our previous research found that Zen meditators have lower pain sensitivity. The aim of the current study was to determine how they are achieving this," says senior author Pierre ...
Large birds, such as storks, save energy on the flight to their wintering grounds by soaring through the air on thermal currents. Until now, however, we knew nothing about the flight patterns of small migrating songbirds, such as whether they flap their wings or soar and whether these styles of flight allow them to save energy. Now, a team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Ben-Gurion-University of the Negev, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem have tracked the movement of European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) along the Africa-Eurasia ...
New Rochelle, NY, December 8, 2010—As the prevalence of childhood obesity approaches epidemic levels, physicians on the "front line" need to become more involved in obesity prevention and weight management to reverse this dangerous trend among their young patients. But several obstacles discourage pediatricians and other primary care physicians from taking a more active role in managing childhood obesity. An expert panel identified these barriers and explored strategies for overcoming them in a Roundtable Discussion on "New Ways to Overcome Old Barriers: Engaging Pediatricians ...
Neuroimaging—is it voodoo, new phrenology, or scientific breakthrough? See what the experts have to say in this special section on fMRI in Perspectives on Psychological Science.
Neuroimaging: Voodoo, New Phrenology, or Scientific Breakthrough? Introduction to Special Section on fMRI (http://pps.sagepub.com/content/5/6/714.full)
Ed Diener
In response to the widespread interest following the publication of Vul et al (2009) (http://pps.sagepub.com/content/4/3/274.abstract), Perspectives Editor Ed Diener invited researchers to contribute articles for a special section ...
HOUSTON -- (Dec. 8, 2010) -- Physicists from Rice University and Princeton University have discovered how to use one of the information technology industry's mainstay materials -- gallium arsenide semiconductors -- as an ultrasensitive microwave detector that could be suitable for next-generation computers. The discovery comes at a time when computer chip engineers are racing both to add nanophotonic devices directly to microchips and to boost processor speeds beyond 10 gigahertz (GHz).
"Tunable photon-detection technology in the microwave range is not well-developed," ...
The playground can be a daunting place for any kid trying to join in and be one of the gang. For kids with disabilities it's just as important to feel included, be accepted and valued – particularly by their peers.
In a study to understand the perspectives of children with disabilities around inclusion in physical activities during free play, recreational sports and recess, Dr. Nancy Spencer-Cavaliere, an adapted physical activity expert, in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, interviewed children with a range of disabilities ...
Researchers have developed a statistical model for projecting how many people will get sick from seasonal influenza based on analyses of flu viruses circulating that season. The research, conducted by scientists at the National Institutes of Health, appears today in the open-access publication PLoS Currents: Influenza.
Building on other research that has shown that severity of infections with the Influenza A virus is related to its novelty (i.e., how much the virus has changed, or mutated, from prior seasons), the study evaluated the correlation between virus novelty ...
Investigators have demonstrated for the first time that the most common malignant childhood brain tumor, medulloblastoma, is actually several different diseases, each arising from distinct cells destined to become different structures. The breakthrough is expected to dramatically alter the diagnosis and treatment of this major childhood cancer.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators led the international effort, which confirms that certain brain tumors and possibly other cancers regarded as the same disease; are in fact separate diseases with different origins. ...
As primary caregivers, parents are often believed to have a strong influence on children's eating behaviors. However, previous findings on parent-child resemblance in dietary intakes are mixed. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reviewed and assessed the degree of association and similarity between children's and their parents' dietary intake based on worldwide studies published since 1980. The meta-analysis is featured in the December issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
"Contrary to popular belief, many studies ...
