What are the sources?

Natural sources

• contaminated foods (especially seafoods)

• groundwater (which is used as drinking water)

• Volcanic action

• low-temperature volatilization.

• Organic arsenic compounds such as arsenobetaine, arsenocholine, tetramethylarsonium salts, arsenosugars and arsenic-containing lipids are mainly found in marine organisms although some of these compounds have also been found in terrestrial species

• Natural low-temperature biomethylation

• reduction to arsines releases arsenic into the atmosphere

Man-made sources

• medications

• ore smelting/refining/processing plants, galvanizing, etching and plating processes

• burning of fossil fuels especially in coal-fired power generation plants

• Tailings from or river bottoms near gold mining areas (past or present)

• Agricultural chemicals: Insecticides, rodenticides and fungicides

• Commercial arsenic products which include: sodium arsenite, calcium arsenate, and lead arsenate.

• "Paris green" (cupric acetoarsenite) a wood preservative.

• Burning of vegetation