The California Environmental Protection Agency’s
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) today announced
the publication of a final Public Health Goal (PHG) for arsenic in drinking water.
The PHG identifies 4 parts per trillion as a level of arsenic in drinking
water that would not be expected to pose a significant human health risk. “Our public health goal establishes a long-term objective for the reduction
of arsenic in California’s drinking water,” OEHHA Director Dr. Joan E. Denton
said. “Arsenic is one of the most toxic substances commonly found in drinking
water, and it occurs naturally in many parts of the world, including California.”
In developing the PHG, OEHHA conducted an exhaustive analysis of all
available scientific studies on the health effects of arsenic. The PHG is based
upon studies of hundreds of thousands of patients in Taiwan, Chile and
Argentina with lung and bladder cancers associated with elevated levels of
arsenic in drinking water.
OEHHA estimates that a level of 4 parts per trillion of
arsenic in drinking water would cause not more than one additional cancer case
in a population of one million people drinking two liters of water daily for 70 years.
Arsenic is found naturally in air, water, soil, mineral deposits, and food.
While arsenic in water typically is naturally occurring, the improper disposal of
waste chemicals can also contaminate water supplies with arsenic.
Long-term
exposure to arsenic in drinking water can increase the risk of lung and bladder
cancer and, to a lesser extent, increase the risk of skin, liver and kidney cancer.
State law requires OEHHA to develop PHGs for all regulated drinking
water contaminants. A PHG is not a regulatory drinking water standard, and it is
not a boundary between “safe” and “dangerous” levels of a chemical in drinking
water.
A PHG represents a health-protective level of a chemical in drinking water
that can serve as a long-term goal for California’s drinking water providers and
regulators. The Department of Health Services (DHS) will develop a new state
drinking-water standard for arsenic that, by law, must be as close to the PHG as
is economically and technically feasible.
The existing state and federal drinking water standards for arsenic have
been set at 50 parts per billion for many years. A new federal arsenic standard
of 10 parts per billion will take effect in 2006. States may adopt a new standard
that is equal to or more stringent than the federal standard.