Screening and spatial character of high arsenic-containing drinking water source in Jiangsu province

ObjectiveTo de scribe the distribution of the drinking water source with high levels of arsenic in Jiangsu province,and to provide evidence for control and prevention of endemic arsenism.MethodsThe water arsenic was screened with half-quantitative method of fast test-kit.The samples with level of arsenic≥0.03mg/L were sent to Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention for quantitative analysis.The data were analyzed with Arcview GIS 3.2 linked to electronic maps of Jiangsu province.ResultsThe total number of screened samples was 9427 and the number of samples with the level of arsenic≥0.05 mg/L was 220,which mainly distributed in areas of Sihong and Xuyi county along Huaihe River,Hongze Lake,and Anhui province.The distribution of drinking water source with high level of arsenic in Jiangsu province has spatial characters analyzed by Arcview GIS 3.2 software.ConclusionThere are certain areas with high level arsenic in drink ing water in Jiangsu province,and they are mainly distributed in shallow wells.