Cyanide may also show up in the runoff or discharge of a metal plating facility because. . .

“Cyanide compounds are used in plating baths because they accomodate a wide range of electrical current, remove tarnish or other undesirable films from surfaces to be plated, and cause an even metal deposit to form that has lower sensitivity to impurities present in the the bath. Metals coatings of cadmium, iron, gold, and zinc often use cyanide compounds. Cyanide is typically found complexed with plating metals, or as sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide, which is added to the bath.” (source)

How can the average consumer make sure the water in their well has not fallen victim to an (un)announced industrial accident or poor enforcement of cyanide discharge laws from local industry? 

Recently a company came out with a presence/absence test for cyanide that has a sensitivity as low as 0.2ppm and as high as 1,700ppm for free dissolved cyanide:

* Cyanide Emergency Test Kit — This kit utilizes EPA/ETV Test Verified chemistry and makes testing for the presence of cyanide in drinking water as simple as dipping two strips in a vial and seeing if the second strip turns colors.  A change in color on the test area of the second strip indicates the presence of cyanide in the sample.

* eXact^® Strip Cyanide — For those who need more precise numbers when testing for the presence of cyanide in water, the makers of the above kit also offer a cyanide detection kit designed to accurately determine cyanide concentrations in effluents and surface waters.  The eXact^® Strip Cyanide Kit requires as little as two minutes for cyanide colorimetric analysis and has a detection range of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, >10, >20, <200 ppm (mg/L).

Both kits use the same laboratory tested chemistry and yield reliable, repeatable results.  If you worry about, or suspect, the possible introduction of cyanide into your drinking or well water by local industry, then these kits will help you to quickly and easily put those fears to bed or determine that you might want to investigate further using a certified laboratory’s more advanced testing methods.

Need to test for other metals?

The following metals in water test kits currently available in our Water Test Kit Store ought to help!

Most people hear and about cyanide and think of the toxic gas used in gas chambers, but few know just how easily they could locate cyanide in their everyday life if they looked a bit closer.

Cigarette smoke acts as a common source of cyanide that most of us encounter on a daily basis. The cores of peach pits also contain a measurable quantity of cyanide. Want proof? Pick up a Cyanide Water Test Strips Kit and see for yourself.

For those of you with more lofty and/or scientific cyanide testing objectives, this same kit, also called Cyanide ReagentStrip^TM test kit, also gets used quite often for testing runoff water leaving metal plating companies and testing the output water from wastewater treatment plants.

Does quick and dirty cyanide testing exist?

Terrorist actions worldwide have spawned fears of chemical attacks and the spiking of public water supplies with cyanide. As a result of these fears, the demand for a fast, reliable presence/absence cyanide test arose.

Soldiers, environmental protection groups, water system operators, emergency responders, healthcare professionals, and others now rely upon fast, accurate presence-absence water testing kits such as the Cyanide Emergency Test Kit to warn them instantly if water in their presence contains between 0.2 ppm to 1700 ppm free cyanide.

Presence/Absence Test for Cyanide in Water