With so many news outlets discussing recent findings of arsenic in bottles of apple juice bearing brand names it comes as no surprise to us that we would receive an inquiry like the one we just got from ‘Hadiah’ who asked, “I would like to know exactly what arsenic testing kit i could use for my daughters science fair project. She is testing for arsenic in apple juice.”

Thus far in our limited research we have found only one kit that we THINK may have the ability to perform testing on various juices: Arsenic Quick. Why do we think this kit may have promise? Quite simply, its design (hanging the test pad reaction area above the liquid getting tested and relying solely upon arsenic gas liberated by a small quantity of food grade acid) means the color of the juice ought not interfere with reading the resultant color of the test pad after at the completion of the test.

Food grade acid? Liberated arsenic gas? Is this test SAFE?

Having performed the test numerous times ourselves, we can assure you that the test procedure and required testing reagents pose little to no harm to people performing the tests.

Food Grade Acid – Instead of using more caustic and potentially dangerous acids like other kits, the Arsenic Quick Test Kit uses tartaric acid, an acid commonly found in various ingredients used in foods most of us eat on a daily basis.

Liberated Arsenic Gas – While the directions for the Arsenic Quick Test Kit instruct testing personnel to perform testing in a well-ventilated area, the amount of gas generated by such a small sample should pose no risks.

But, just the same… open a window in the kitchen and turn on the stove exhaust fan (if you have one), test in the garage w/ the door open, or take some other precaution that will keep fresh air coming into the test area.

Proper precaution in any testing environment, even if the testing environment seems safe, always pays off!

We knew that this question would come along sooner or later. ‘Lisa’ wrote in and asked, “can my daughter use the arsenic water testing kit on juice? can you recommend any ideas for a science fair project?”

While we have no evidence to support the notion that Arsenic Quick Test Kits will function properly with juice as the test specimen rather than water, we have used the kits extensively and know that the color of the juice ought not affect the results since the test pads react with ‘arsenic gas’ liberated from the sample inside the reaction vessel and not the actual water sample.

Note: We contacted the makers of Arsenic Quick Test Kits about the effectiveness of their Arsenic Quick Test Kits with juice as samples and will most certainly share any definitive information we learn.

Getting back to the topic of using Arsenic Quick Test Kits, at first the process may sound a bit complex — but trust us when we say it really does not take a rocket scientist to perform the testing. Hence the reason why a number of people, including folks at the USEPA and other high profile government (as well as non-profit) agencies, have recommended this kit as a viable and useful field testing option when faced with situations where a water source may contain inorganic arsenic as a contaminant.

At this point you may find yourself asking, “Wait, didn’t you say the test liberated arsenic gas?”

Yes, Arsenic Quick Test Kits do liberate small amounts of arsenic gas in the test vessel but the amounts generated should not pose a problem as long as the testing takes place in an area with proper ventilation. In other words, open a window, test in the garage w/ the door open or perform your testing outdoors.

Arsenic Quick Test Kits do not require typical controlled laboratory environments in order to yield quality results.

What about the science projects?

So glad you asked! Depending on where you live, Lisa, and how many bodies of water you have access to for sampling purposes, you could have quite a few really cool science projects for your daughter to work on.

A company called Water Safe manufactures a test kit called the Science Fair Project Test Kit which gives young (or old!) experimenters the ability to test up to 10 bodies of water for the following important drinking water parameters:

Do other options exist for more testing? Of course they do… but the WaterSafe Science Fair Project Test Kit offers a good sampling (8 parameters for 10 bodies of water) of tests for a reasonable cost — around $80. If that option does not suit your budget, WaterSafe also makes the same kit in a smaller size that tests up to 4 bodies of water for the same water quality parameters for around $40.

Got bigger testing plans?

If you believe you will want to perform long-term testing and will need 25 to 50 tests per water quality parameter, SenSafe manufactures a par of kits called the Well Driller Standard and Well Driller Master test kits which both come with plenty of testing supplies to keep testing projects of longer duration well-stocked.

If you have not heard this already, studies have found that popular brands of juice contain higher than expected levels of arsenic, a naturally occurring toxic element known to cause definite health problems with prolonged exposure.

What juice brands contained arsenic? Name brands you might recognize included Minute Maid, Mott’s, Gerber, Welch’s, and Great Value ( source )

Did other brands ring in as containing arsenic, as well? Yes, and the same study also explored the lead content in various juices — and discovered that an alarming number of juice brands contained unsettling amounts of lead.

Scary times, in our opinion, when juice manufacturers — or the manufacturers of ANY food or beverage product — do not take into consideration contaminant levels like lead or arsenic regardless of whether or not the levels violate Federal Law.

We believe that companies who produce products intended for use or consumption by children really ought to hold themselves to higher standards than Federal Laws mandate since laws dictating food & beverage products — and possibly every aspect of our lives — only go on the books AFTER something becomes a problem, people get sick, someone dies, etc.

Many of you may have seen episodes of murder mystery shows where the killer used arsenic to poison his/her victims… because it WORKS as a lethal poison in the right doses and also causes debilitating conditions with prolonged exposure at lower levels.

Find more information on arsenic and test kits for arsenic in places like water, soil and wood below:

• Basic Information About Arsenic
• Arsenic Test Kits (water, soil, wood)
• Arsenic Quick Test Kits
• Arsenic Category on Water Testing Blog

We mentioned lead in the title of this article… so we will now tell you that the same study mentioned above ALSO determined that popular brands of juice contained higher than expected levels of lead, too.

For those not knowledgeable about lead in water or the effects of lead on the human body — especially young children — it will suffice to say that it does bad, bad things and you do not want it in your food or water.

Over the years we have posted numerous articles about lead in water, testing for lead in water and various ways to remove lead from drinking water. Check out those lead in water postings in the Water Testing Blog ‘Lead’ Archives.

Though the final word on how a 17-yr old boy may have succumb to the evils of arsenic poisoning have not come to light, it has raised the question of how much arsenic the water in a region of Australia really contains.

Up until this point no comprehensive studies of arsenic in water concentrations have taken place in this particular region (Mount Bundy Station, located 100 kilometers south of Darwin) and at least one person thinks that needs to change… Immediately.

An environmental engineer has called for more water testing in the Northern Territory following the death of a teenager of suspected arsenic poisoning.

17-year-old Ben Witham died last week in hospital after becoming ill on Mount Bundy Station, 100 kilometres south of Darwin.

Dr Gavin Mudd, from Monash University says little is known of the levels of arsenic concentrate in local water sources, particularly around retired mines.

“From a basic sustainability or environmental perspective, we should be gathering good data to prove there are no problems,” he said.

“Just because we have no data to show and we believe there’s no problem, that’s a very dangerous approach from a public health perspective.”

Northern Territory Police are preparing a file for the South Australian coroner, who is investigating the death. ( source )

What could the testing reveal?

Most importantly it could reveal whether or not residents in the area have received unusually high amounts of exposure to arsenic through their drinking water. Conversely, and just as important, it could reveal that water in the region has not become contaminated (to an appreciable extent) by local abandoned wells, the likes of which have caused contamination issues in other areas of the country (and world).

How difficult is it to test for arsenic in drinking water?

In a case like this we suggest that residents defer to the advanced equipment and sampling techniques used by qualified/certified water testing professionals. Then, once results (hopefully) come back with in an acceptable range, local residents could use a test kit from the Arsenic Quick line of water test kits to perform field testing to make sure no new sources of arsenic contamination have influenced the quality of their water.

You can find additional information on Arsenic Test Kits on the Arsenic-Test-Kit.Com Web Site.

Arseinc Quick Test Kit — 100 Tests
Methodology Verified by EPA/ETV Program

Warmer weather in most of the Northern Hemisphere means a lot more water will start to flow from one place to another… and as it does it could pick up all sorts of unpleasant, and potentially harmful, drinking water contaminants.

As an example, the rise and fall of aquifer levels in certain parts of the United States can have a pronounced effect on dissolved arsenic levels in the water contained in those aquifers.

As a second example, water from melting snows or from Spring showers traveling across the land in agricultural regions has a tendency to pick up potentially harmful bacteria and nitrates/nitrites that could work their way into poorly capped wells.

Other unwanted drinking water contaminants such as atrazine and simazine also get picked up runoff water making its way through the countryside. As you may recall, farmers in the United States used both of those compounds, especially atrazine, as an herbicide/pesticide for many years — and therefore it ought not surprise you that pockets of washed away atrazine lurk in many unsuspecting parts of the country.

For those who don’t already know, some people take the production of crystal clear, healthy and refreshing water very seriously. VERY seriously.

Some take it so seriously that they enter their expertly filtered drinking water into competitions and in this case, tap water produced by members of the Atlantic States Rural Water and Wastewater Association competed glass-to-glass for bragging rights, cash rewards and the chance to represent the region in a National competition.

So let’s stop with all the small talk and get right to the drinkin’…. drinkin’ WATER, that is.

WALLINGFORD, Conn. — How does your tap water stack up against the rest of the state? That’s what people at the annual drinking water taste test at the annual meeting of the Atlantic States Rural Water and Wastewater Association wanted to find out on Wednesday.

The water was judged on clarity, bouquet, cleansing properties and aftertaste.

…

Three judges blind-tested water from 12 water systems, six from chlorinated systems and six that were natural, in the state putting a lot of thought and tasting into each entry.

Scores were tabulated and winners were declared. The winner from the chlorinated category came from Sprague.

More testing, more tasting and more numbers later, the system from the Chatham Acres Senior Housing in East Hampton won in the natural filters division.

Then the two winners went head to head, or lip to lip and sip by sip.

“The winner had a little bit of a slight minerally taste,” said Ed Bailey, of Middlefield. “It almost seemed natural, whereas the other one had a soft taste to it.”

With the tension mounting an overall winner was declared — La Framboise Water Services, which handles the water at Chatham Acres. ( source )

So there you have it. Water testing of a far less technical nature, yet still a very important process since ‘chemically safe’ water tasting like raw sewage won’t get consumed by the average person.

Clean tasting water has zero contaminants, right?

Not by a long shot! Many very dangerous contaminants have no discernible taste or odor to them at levels potentially harmful to humans, pets, livestock, etc. Example: Bacteria in water.

Other contaminants may exist in water at levels low enough to escape detection, yet exposure to them over a prolonged period of time may result in serious harm to a person. Example: Arsenic in water.

No one would dare question the belief that industry has a way of making messes and leaving them for others to clean up… or just leaving them and hoping no one ever realizes a mess got made in the first place. Some folks in a New Jersey community believe they have caught a company red-handed at a closed quarry and have asked the State to step in.

Residents and public officials in Basking Ridge, NJ asked the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to put pressure on the operators of the closed Millington Quarry on Stonehouse Road because they had evidence which suggested contaminated soil may have gotten trucked into the site over a period of years and used as back fill material.

The DEP issued a letter to Millington Quarry, Inc. and Tilcon New York, Inc. recently stating that it requires additional soil and groundwater testing around the property of the now closed quarry… and they want the testing done in accordance with State approved testing methodologies before the cold weather begins.

Needless to say the DEP’s position pleased the residents and officials in Basking Ridge, NJ.

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has called for additional soil and groundwater testing at the closed Millington Quarry on Stonehouse Road, to the approval of township officials.

Millington Quarry, Inc. and Tilcon New York, Inc., the company that had been quarrying the site before operations ceased last May, were this month informed that the DEP wants further testing at three areas of the quarry where water and soil samples showed a limited presence of contaminants. A letter to the quarry on Oct. 16 called for the quarry to follow the state’s methodology in conducting the additional testing before the onset of cold weather.

…

The township has been embroiled in a legal dispute with the quarry based on suspicions of contaminated soil being trucked into the property over a period of several years. The soil was used to fill in steeply quarried areas. Random testing of some of those truckloads by a township consultant identified the presence of some contaminants, according to township officials.

David Oster, a section chief with the DEP’s office of Brownfields Remediation & Reuse, wrote in his Oct. 4 letter that the quarry’s limited groundwater investigation into wells on the site had shown elevated levels of arsenic, lead and other volatile chemicals in one well, and arsenic exceeding the DEP’s standards in another.

The letter also reported findings of pesticides and other contaminants in some soil samples that exceed the DEP’s standards for residential and non-residential soil cleanup criteria. The quarry owners have long had plans to eventually sell the closed quarry property for redevelopment with home sites. ( source )

Stories like that make us wonder how many companies have knowingly dumped loads of fill material they knew contained higher than expected and/or allowed levels of contaminants in places — and gotten away with it. On second thought, maybe we don’t really want the answer to that question. It might scare us a lot more than we’d like!

Spot testing pays off in the end?

Of course it does and this story proves it! Without the township hiring a consultant to perform sampling and testing on the loads of material entering the quarry the town would never have gotten the data it used to persuade the DEP to intervene.

Remember: The article said “elevated levels of arsenic, lead and other volatile chemicals in one well, and arsenic exceeding the DEP’s standards in another” which means those potentially hazardous items could have seeped into the local groundwater supply undetected and then found their way into the local population’s drinking water if someone had not stepped up done a little bit of testing.

No one will step and test YOUR water for you, though, if you own a private well… and that means whatever contaminants your well pumps up become your responsibility to detect, report and ultimately get rid of.

The Courts in Illinois will play host to a series of lawsuits alleging that a Rohm & Haas facility allowed a carcinogenic compound known as vinyl chloride to escape into the environment and contaminate the aquifer from which local residents pull their drinking water.

Wikipedia.org has this to say about vinyl chloride: “This colorless compound is an important industrial chemical chiefly used to produce the polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC). At ambient pressure and temperature, vinyl chloride is a gas with a sickly sweet odor. It is highly toxic, flammable and carcinogenic.” ( source )

More than 300 McCullom Lake residents have signed up to get their wells tested for carcinogenic vinyl chloride at Rohm and Haas’ expense.

Of 515 surveys sent out last month by village government, 325 came back wanting the free test, while only 11 responded no, Village President Terry Counley said. Rohm and Haas offered in August to pay for it, more than four years into a series of lawsuits blaming pollution from its Ringwood plant for causing a brain cancer cluster.

“I’d say it’s a very good sign. We’re all in this boat together over here, and we need the answers,” Counley said.

Counley must select a water testing company from a list of firms accredited by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Only people who signed up will get their wells tested, and Counley said he would like to get it done before winter.

Three former village next-door neighbors diagnosed with brain cancer filed the first lawsuits in April 2006, alleging that decades of seepage from a closed 8-acre waste pit fouled their air and groundwater with vinyl chloride and other chemicals.

Thirty-two lawsuits as of today blame the pollution for brain and pituitary tumors in McCullom Lake and the Lakeland Park subdivision in McHenry. ( source )

Thankfully the residents of that region in Illinois have banded together and taken a stand on the matter of well water pollution. With any hope these folks will find some answers from the testing… and after that we hope other communities will band together and investigate possible sources of suspected well water contamination.

Can the average person test their own well water?

While the task of testing well or ground water for the presence of compounds such as vinyl chloride will remain in the hands of certified water testing experts such as National Testing Laboratories, the average person CAN test for other, more common drinking water contaminants.

Companies such as SenSafe and WaterSafe make easy-to-use, accurate at-home water test kits for a number of critical drinking water parameters such as arsenic in water, lead in water, bacteria in water, and heavy metals in water, etc.

Consumers have the option of purchasing drinking water test kits for individual parameters or in multi-parameter test kits such as the Water Quality Test Kit from SenSafe and the All in One test Kit from WaterSafe.

Now that school has started many students and parents have realized that a science fair looms in the near future… and the SMART ones have started looking for ideas already. The rest will wait until the last minute and wind up putting a bunch of ants in a jar and say they started an ant farm.

We recently received an email from a parent whose son and friend want to perform arsenic testing on a number of water samples in their area and chart the results.

My question: My son and a co-student are wanting to do a science fair project on arsenic in the ground water. We wanted to check many samples. However, the cost of the kits are prohibitive. Is there a way that the cost of the kits may be reduced for such an endeavor?? (we wanted to use the 100 sample kit.) We would love to use your product and have it on display for the project. Please let us know if this is a possibility.. thank you so very much.

It pleases us to hear that some youngsters have taken an interest in doing a lot of ground water testing for arsenic using an Arsenic Quick Test Kit… but to tell the truth, we don’t actually MAKE that test kit OR physically sell it. The kit gets manufactured by a company called Industrial Test Systems, Inc. ( www.sensafe.com/home.php ).

Having spoken with members of that company’s staff on numerous occasions, we can assure you that other people have successfully used versions of their field-ready arsenic test kit in science fairs in the past and done quite well.

As for whether or not they will cut you a special deal, we cannot say. Last we heard they did have special pricing available for educators so it may prove useful to give them a call and see what they say: (800) 861-9712

Don’t forget to tell them Water Testing Blog sent ya’!

Miniature arsenic test kits for spot testing?

In addition to full-sized arsenic test kits, Arsenic Quick also has a line of smaller test kits that come with either 2 or 5 tests.

Part Number: 481297-2 <2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 24, 30, 40, 45 & >50ppb 2 Tests	Part Number: 481396-2 0, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 & >500 ppb 2 Tests
Part Number: 481303-5 <1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 20, 25, 30, 40, >50, >80, >120, >160 ppb 5 Tests	Part Number: 481300-5 0, 0.3, 0.7, 1.0, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, 20 & >20 ppb 5 Tests
Part Number: 481396-5 0, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 & >500 ppb 5 Tests	Part Number: 481301-5 <0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, >20, >30, >50 ppb 5 Tests

If memory serves us right, a student won some sort of National Award using an Arsenic Quick test kit.

Other water test kits for science fair projects?

Not all students have access to well water or surface water… but that does NOT mean they can’t use water testing as the basis of their science project. Why? Because even tap water varies from place to place and in some places its quality may vary on a daily basis.

As the title stated, routine testing of well water yielded startling results… near an Elementary School in Durham, Connecticut.

Testing of water from several wells showed higher than ‘normal’ amounts of sodium, sulfates, hardness and… dissolved arsenic.

DURHAM — Traces of arsenic in some of the town’s wells have prompted the Department of Health to encouraging residents to test their water, according to a press release posted on the department’s website.

People who live or work around Brewster Elementary School are advised to have their water tested within the next three to six weeks. The department is also asking residents to fill out and submit a report — also on the department’s website — so officials can determine the extent of contamination.

Arsenic, which causes health problems like skin discoloration (melanosis), hardening of the skin (keratosis) and cancer, can contaminate groundwater naturally and through human activities such as mining. It can also come from pesticides and fertilizers that contain arsenic. ( source )

Health officials went on to say that although certain area wells did show elevated levels of arsenic contamination, people do not need to get alarmed just yet. They do not have enough test data to reach any firm conclusions and would like the private well owners to lend a hand and by conducting testing and reporting the results via a form currently available on the Durham Department of Health web site.

For those not aware of the dangers arsenic in drinking water may pose, take a look at some of the prior articles posted on this site:

• What is Arsenic and Can It Harm You?
• Study: Arsenic in Water and Diabetes
• Study: Exposure to Low Levels of Arsenic Lowers Influenza Resistance

Can the general public perform arsenic testing on its own safely?

Absolutely. The Arsenic Quick™ line of arsenic in water test kits offers allows users to quickly and accurately test for dissolved arsenic (As3 & As5) in drinking water in as little as 12 minutes.

Below you will find links to the Arsenic Quick™ test kits offered by (3) three different
online merchants: Filters Fast, Filter Water and Test Products.

• Arsenic Quick™ Test Kits at FilterWater.Com
• Arsenic Quick™ Test Kits at FiltersFast.Com
• Arsenic Quick™ Test Kits at TestProducts.Com

   Arsenic Quick™ at FilterWater.Com

Arsenic Quick™ Test Kit 100 Tests

Arsenic Quick™ Test Mini-Kit 2 Tests

   Arsenic Quick™ at FiltersFast.Com

   Arsenic Quick™ at TestProducts.Com

Part Number: 481297-2 Arsenic Quick — 2 Tests	Part Number: 481298 Arsenic Quick — 300 Tests	Part Number: 481300 Arsenic Quick — 5 Tests
Part Number: 481396-2 Arsenic Quick — 2 Tests	Part Number: 481396-5 Arsenic Quick — 5 Tests	Part Number: 481301-5 Arsenic Quick — 5 Tests
Part Number: 481303 Arsenic Quick — 50 Tests	Part Number: 481303-5 Arsenic Quick — 5 Tests	Part Number: 481297-I Arsenic Quick — 50 Tests

For more information on arsenic test kits, take a look at the following web sites: Arsenic-Test-Kit.Com and ArsenicQuick.Com.