Arsenic: How You Can Be Exposed and What It Does

Arsenic is a natural element found in soil and minerals. Its compounds are used to preserve wood, as pesticides, and in some industries. It gets into air, water and the ground in wind-blown dust, and into water in runoff.

How you can be exposed

• small amounts in food, drinking water or air;
• breathing sawdust or smoke from burning arsenic-treated wood;
• living where rocks are high in arsenic;
• working in a job that makes or uses arsenic.

Health effects

Arsenic can cause many health problems.

• Low levels over a long time can change your skin color and cause corns and small warts.
• High levels can cause death.

Sources

Based on "Arsenic," MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, drawing on the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; a work of the United States government in the public domain.