The Turkish Journal Of Occupational / Environmental Medicine and Safety

Abstract

High
concentration of Arsenic in groundwater has become the
most important environmental issue facing people worldwide. The most common
sources of arsenic in groundwater are both natural and anthropogenic. Arsenic has been caused serious effects on
human health in different districts of the world both on a local as well
as a regional scale. Considering these serious
effects on human health, arsenic in groundwater resources used in
drinking water supply field has been an active research topic for a long time
throughout the world. Some studies on arsenic in groundwater of Turkey have
been carried out over the last decades and a high concentration of this element
has been identified in different parts of Turkey having complex geology of
widespread volcanic succession with active tectonics and geothermal fluids.

This natural
setting serves as a suitable environment for the presence of high levels of
arsenic in groundwater resources. In this regard, high arsenic concentrations
in groundwater have been detected in many provinces of Turkey including but not
limited to western Turkey, northwestern and southeast of Turkey with values
ranging from 10 to 9300 ppb in groundwater. These values exceed the national
and international drinking water quality criteria of 10 ppb and are several
orders of magnitude larger than these standard values. These high arsenic concentrations greatly
raise health risk for people consuming these waters.