Arsenic Removal

The New York Times:

A common mineral similar to rust fashioned into a powder of tiny crystals could provide a simple, inexpensive method for removing hazardous levels of arsenic from drinking water, researchers at Rice University in Houston are reporting today.

That would help reduce the risk of cancer for tens of millions of impoverished villagers in China and Southeast Asia, where high levels of arsenic occur naturally in many water supplies, the researchers said in telephone interviews.

Arsenic contamination is also a threat to water supplies in parts of Latin America, Africa and the United States, where the Environmental Protection Agency this year reduced allowable arsenic levels in municipal water systems to 10 parts per billion, down from 50 parts per billion.