Family got sick, suspect arsenic in water

[Gringo80]

This week My whole family got sick from what appears to be arsenic poisoning from our water. We're having blood tests done, but I'm pretty sure it was arsenic from the symptoms we experienced. We had been using a filter on our faucet but now we see that it doesn't screen arsenic. So now we're looking for a better way to filter our water. We've talked to water delivery services but they tell us that they rely on laboratory testing which doesn't inspire me with a lot of confidence. We live outside of CABA. I'd appreciate any helpful suggestions.

 

[FrankPintor]

Ouch! What symptoms, if I can ask?

Some info here in this thread: https://baexpats.org/threads/how-much-water-do-you-consume-daily.49074/post-467934

Not all filters remove arsenic.

And laboratory monitoring should be fine, really, arsenic is a naturally occurring element in places, not something caused by contamination. But if you suspect poisoning, definitely get testing done at the point you're drinking the tapwater. For the moment, maybe get bottled water, Ivess, or something like that. Or buy in the supermarket.

 

[Gringo80]

I had a sharp pain in the center of my chest, a funny feeling in my hands, light headedness, of course gastro upset, and generally feeling terrible but not in any way that I've experienced before, not a flu, not food poisoning.

 

[ShoeMakerLevy9]

I'm sorry that this happened to you and your family. I'm sure this is not the first time it happens here since I remember reading news (circa 2008) about a whole town suffering from arsenic poisoning. Hope you can find a way to filter it out. We also use a filter in my family and I'm not sure if it prevents arsenic from getting through so doing a lab test seems like a no brainer. I concur with FP, for the time being drink bottled water. Cheers.

 

[Gringo80]

I'm sorry that this happened to you and your family. I'm sure this is not the first time it happens here since I remember reading news (circa 2008) about a whole town suffering from arsenic poisoning. Hope you can find a way to filter it out. We also use a filter in my family and I'm not sure if it prevents arsenic from getting through so doing a lab test seems like a no brainer. I concur with FP, for the time being drink bottled water. Cheers.

Thanks. We live in La Plata

 

[mc kenna]

As far as i could investigate, symptoms of arsenic poisoning don't manifest physically until it's too late and in most cases it's misdiagnosed as first stages of parkinsons desease and medicated erroneously.\
By the time symptoms start to differ from parkinsons ,it's too late and the poisoning becomes irreversably, how ever for that to happen, you would have to be exposed to large amounts of arsenic for a prolonged time,normally, does not happen overnight.
There are kits sold to test different heavy metals in the water which by no means i would bet my life on it but i would use as a reference to compare with what labs have to say about it.
One of the things in Argentina that it's not regulated is the air quality of homes, for instance, mold could cause a reaction in some people and not in others, old lead paint, old lead piping, among other things.
i would take the time to assess your enviroment to find out what happened to you.
I wouldn't down play the suspicion and it is worth investigting , but most of the times turn out to be the ingestion of something less complex as heavy metals poisoning.

 

[Gringo80]

If it is arsenic in the water, we might have been exposed for a long time. We've thought that we were passing around a stomach bug for a couple of months.

We'll know more when I get the results of the blood test I took two days ago. I should have the results by Dec. 19.

I did ask Grok (AI) and this is the info that he (it?) gave me:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I takes time it takes to develop symptoms after drinking arsenic-contaminated water depends heavily on the dose (how much arsenic you ingested) and whether it was a acute (one-time high exposure) or chronic (repeated lower exposure over time). Here are the typical timelines:

Acute (single or short-term high-dose) poisoning​

• Very high dose(e.g., tens or hundreds of mg, sometimes from accidental or intentional poisoning):
  • Symptoms can appear in as little as 30 minutes to a few hours.
  • Early signs: metallic taste, garlic odor on breath, excessive salivation, vomiting, severe abdominal pain, rice-water-like diarrhea, dehydration.
  • Within hours to 1–2 days: severe dehydration, shock, seizures, coma, and possibly death if untreated.
• Moderate acute exposure(e.g., a few mg/L in water drunk in large quantity):
  • Symptoms usually start within several hours to 1–2 days.
  • Gastrointestinal distress is still the main early feature.

Subacute or repeated moderate exposure (weeks to months)​

• If you drink water with moderately elevated arsenic (e.g., 0.1–1 mg/L) daily:
  • First noticeable symptoms often appear after 2–8 weeks.
  • Early signs: skin changes (dark/light spots — “raindrop” pigmentation, hyperkeratosis on palms/soles), fatigue, nausea, peripheral neuropathy (tingling/numbness in hands and feet).

C​

 

[another]

Reverse Osmosis filters remove between 90% and 99% of arsenic. It's the next best purification method after distillation. And it's cheap here comparing to NA prices. Worth the investment.

https://listado.mercadolibre.com.ar/osmosis-reversa#D[A:eek:smosis reversa]

 

[NoSoyDeAqui]

Ugh...sorry you are not feeling well.

Recently in the news it was mentioned an ongoing study of arsenic in water that a lab in ITBA has been performing. They collected their data to date in a map https://mapa-de-arsenico.web.app/

Data for La Plata shows acceptable to moderate high As content. But results can be very different if you have well water....the ongoing suspicion with water contamination is that this is coming from fertilizers/herbicides

The town I am (norther PBA) is all red!!

 

[FrankPintor]

The town I am (norther PBA) is all red!!

We're actually green here, but the laboratory measurements are best described as obfuscation, here are the latest results for our barrio:



The arsenic limit set by the province is much higher than that set by the WHO (10ppB), and they use some unusual units to display the results. Not a good luck, it suggests something to hide.

I would expect well water to have more arsenic, I did't know that contamination would be due to fertiliser, if so, it seems that organic arsenic contamination is much less dangerous. The countryside in zona norte is mostly pasture, I wouldn't expect too much opportunity for fertiliser / herbicide contamination.

Good luck to @Gringo80, doesn't sound like you had a nice experience.

When budgeting allows, I might go for the reverse osmosis solution, though it is much more expensive than the single cartridge filter I have now which also claims to remove 95 - 99.9% of the arsenic.