Study on endemic arsenism distribution in Beijing

  Objective   To determine whether there are endemic arsenism in Beijing and to study the prevalence of historic high-level endemic arsenism in Shunyi.

  Methods   To investigate the concentration of arsenic in drinking water and well water in ten rural counties of Beijing and perform investigations on the distribution of drink-water type endemic arsenism in historically high-level arsenism area.

  Results   Except for Shunyi, the concentration of arsenic in water is below 0.05mg/L in the rural areas of Beijing.The rate that the content of arsenic in water is higher than given standards in Shunyi.The rate above standands is 8.06%, while the highest concentration is 0.143 mg/L.Arsenism patients are not found.

  Conclusion   Drinking-water type endemic arsenism area and arsenism patients are not found in Beijing, but there are latent endemic areas in Beijing.