2005 Volume 16 Issue 4 Pages 296-298
High As concentrations over the World Health Organization (WHO) drinking water guideline were recently found in groundwater of Gia Lam District and Thanh Tri District, Hanoi, located in the center of the Red River Delta, Vietnam. To reveal the distribution of As contamination in groundwater of the Red River Delta, contamination status of As in other two regions, Ha Nam Province and Ha Tay Province, was examined. Concentrations of As in the groundwater from both regions ranged from 3.0 to 486 μg/l and most of the samples exceeded the WHO drinking water guideline of 10 μg/l. These results suggest that human health risk in both provinces is of concern and that As pollution may be widely distributed in the Red River Delta. Inorganic arsenicals and their methylated compounds such as monomethylarsonic acid [MMA] and dimethylarsinic acid [DMA] were found in urine of residents in the Ha Nam Province and Ha Tay Province. Concentrations of As in groundwater were positively correlated with inorganic arsenicals and DMA in human urine, suggesting that residents are exposed to As through consumption of groundwater.
