Arsenic Epidemiology and Drinking Water Standards

TLDR

The regulation of arsenic in public water supplies has been a protracted process, taking 60 years for the EPA to lower the standard to 10 mg L⁻¹ despite strong epidemiological evidence of cancer risk. Smith et al. examine how the regulatory process could better interpret and respond to epidemiological study results. In 1942 the U.S.

Abstract

Establishment of the maximum contaminant level that regulates the concentration of arsenic in public water supplies has been an extraordinarily protracted process. The U.S. Public Health Service set an interim standard of 50 mg per liter in 1942. It was another 60 years before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lowered the standard to 10 mg per liter, despite extensive epidemiological evidence of significant cancer risks. [ Smith et al .][1] of this Policy Forum consider how the regulatory process might interpret and respond more effectively to results from epidemiological studies. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/296/5576/2145