While we have no evidence to support the notion that Arsenic Quick Test Kits will function properly with juice as the test specimen rather than water, we have used the kits extensively and know that the color of the juice ought not affect the results since the test pads react with ‘arsenic gas’ liberated from the sample inside the reaction vessel and not the actual water sample.

Note: We contacted the makers of Arsenic Quick Test Kits about the effectiveness of their Arsenic Quick Test Kits with juice as samples and will most certainly share any definitive information we learn.

Getting back to the topic of using Arsenic Quick Test Kits, at first the process may sound a bit complex — but trust us when we say it really does not take a rocket scientist to perform the testing. Hence the reason why a number of people, including folks at the USEPA and other high profile government (as well as non-profit) agencies, have recommended this kit as a viable and useful field testing option when faced with situations where a water source may contain inorganic arsenic as a contaminant.

At this point you may find yourself asking, “Wait, didn’t you say the test liberated arsenic gas?”

Yes, Arsenic Quick Test Kits do liberate small amounts of arsenic gas in the test vessel but the amounts generated should not pose a problem as long as the testing takes place in an area with proper ventilation. In other words, open a window, test in the garage w/ the door open or perform your testing outdoors.

Arsenic Quick Test Kits do not require typical controlled laboratory environments in order to yield quality results.

What about the science projects?

So glad you asked! Depending on where you live, Lisa, and how many bodies of water you have access to for sampling purposes, you could have quite a few really cool science projects for your daughter to work on.

A company called Water Safe manufactures a test kit called the Science Fair Project Test Kit which gives young (or old!) experimenters the ability to test up to 10 bodies of water for the following important drinking water parameters:

Bacteria	None
Lead	Below 15 ppb
Pesticides	Below 3ppb (atrazine), Below 4ppb (simazine)
Nitrite	Below 1.0 ppm
Total Nitrate/Nitrite	Below 10.0 ppm
pH	6.5 to 8.5
Total Chlorine	Below 4 ppm
Total Hardness	50 ppm or less

Do other options exist for more testing? Of course they do… but the WaterSafe Science Fair Project Test Kit offers a good sampling (8 parameters for 10 bodies of water) of tests for a reasonable cost — around $80. If that option does not suit your budget, WaterSafe also makes the same kit in a smaller size that tests up to 4 bodies of water for the same water quality parameters for around $40.

Got bigger testing plans?

If you believe you will want to perform long-term testing and will need 25 to 50 tests per water quality parameter, SenSafe manufactures a par of kits called the Well Driller Standard and Well Driller Master test kits which both come with plenty of testing supplies to keep testing projects of longer duration well-stocked.

Well Driller Standard Test Kit

Well Driller Master Test Kit

]]> http://test-for.com/blog/2011/12/testing-for-arsenic-in-juice/feed/ 0 http://test-for.com/blog/2011/12/arsenic-lead-in-popular-juices-%e2%80%94-not-good-for-kids/ http://test-for.com/blog/2011/12/arsenic-lead-in-popular-juices-%e2%80%94-not-good-for-kids/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:07:27 +0000 Water Testing Blog http://watertestingblog.com/?p=5007 If you have not heard this already, studies have found that popular brands of juice contain higher than expected levels of arsenic, a naturally occurring toxic element known to cause definite health problems with prolonged exposure.

What juice brands contained arsenic? Name brands you might recognize included Minute Maid, Mott’s, Gerber, Welch’s, and Great Value ( source )

Did other brands ring in as containing arsenic, as well? Yes, and the same study also explored the lead content in various juices — and discovered that an alarming number of juice brands contained unsettling amounts of lead.

Scary times, in our opinion, when juice manufacturers — or the manufacturers of ANY food or beverage product — do not take into consideration contaminant levels like lead or arsenic regardless of whether or not the levels violate Federal Law.

We believe that companies who produce products intended for use or consumption by children really ought to hold themselves to higher standards than Federal Laws mandate since laws dictating food & beverage products — and possibly every aspect of our lives — only go on the books AFTER something becomes a problem, people get sick, someone dies, etc.

Many of you may have seen episodes of murder mystery shows where the killer used arsenic to poison his/her victims… because it WORKS as a lethal poison in the right doses and also causes debilitating conditions with prolonged exposure at lower levels.

Find more information on arsenic and test kits for arsenic in places like water, soil and wood below:

• Basic Information About Arsenic
• Arsenic Test Kits (water, soil, wood)
• Arsenic Quick Test Kits
• Arsenic Category on Water Testing Blog

We mentioned lead in the title of this article… so we will now tell you that the same study mentioned above ALSO determined that popular brands of juice contained higher than expected levels of lead, too.

For those not knowledgeable about lead in water or the effects of lead on the human body — especially young children — it will suffice to say that it does bad, bad things and you do not want it in your food or water.

Over the years we have posted numerous articles about lead in water, testing for lead in water and various ways to remove lead from drinking water. Check out those lead in water postings in the Water Testing Blog ‘Lead’ Archives.

• Chromium will appear in nature in one of three forms: Chromium(0), Chromium(III) or Chromium(VI).

• Chromium(0) gets used in the production of steel.

• Chromium(III) and/or Chromium(VI) may appear in compounds used for chrome plating, making dyes and pigments, tanning leather, and preserving wood.

• Chromium(III) aids the human body in its use of sugar, protein and fat, though health officials suggest not using excessive amounts of dietary supplements containing chromium compounds.

• Higher levels of chromium(VI) may cause irritation to the lining of the nose, ulcers in the nose, runny nose, and other breathing problems such as asthma, coughing, shortness of breath, and/or wheezing. While both Chromium(III) and Chromium(VI) in air can cause the aforementioned problems, effects occur at much lower concentrations of Chromium(VI) than Chromium(III).

• Chromium(III) and Chromium(VI) may exist in drinking water and have no associated tastes or odors.

• If ingested, Chromium(III) compounds tend to have less toxic tendencies and appear to cause fewer health problems than Chromium(VI) which causes anemia, irritation of the stomach, ulcers in the stomach, and ulcers in the small intestine.

• Some laboratory animals exposed to Chromium(VI) experienced sperm damage and damage to the male reproductive system.

• Some Chromium(VI) compounds may cause skin ulcers and a percentage of the population have extreme sensitivity to Chromium(VI) and/or Chromium(III) with allergic reactions manifesting themselves as severe redness and swelling of the skin.

• The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and the EPA have determined that Chromium(VI) compounds are known human carcinogens. ( source )

• Some developmental effects have been observed in animals exposed to Chromium(VI). ( source )

Regulations, rules and recommendations pertaining to Chromium?

The EPA has determined that exposure to chromium in drinking water at concentrations of 1 mg/L for up to 10 days is not expected to cause any adverse effects in a child. The FDA has determined that the chromium concentration in bottled drinking water should not exceed 1 mg/L. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has limited workers’ exposure to an average of 0.0005 mg/m3 chromium(VI), 0.5 mg/m3 chromium(III), and 1.0 mg/m3 chromium(0) for an 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek. ( source )

What NSF/ANSI Standards apply to chromium in drinking water?

Standard 53, Standard 58, and Standard 62.

For more information on the specifics of those NSF/ANSI Standards and others, take a look at the NSF International Web Site. It offers a wealth of information for both the consumer AND water professionals alike.

Removing chromium from drinking water?

As far as units for the average consumer, pretty much only reverse osmosis makes any sense. One could use a process like distillation, but it has a flow rate that most likely would not meet homeowner needs and a much higher entry cost.

As an example of a reverse osmosis that carries NSF Certification for chromium reduction, you may want to take a look at the Pentek RO-3500 which has a price tag of under $270 and appears to offer a lot of filtering power for the money.

Pentek RO-3500 Reverse Osmosis Water Filters have tested and certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 58 for the reduction of Pentavalent Arsenic (Arsenic V), Barium, Cadmium, Copper, Hexavalent & Trivalent Chromium (Chromium VI & Chromium III), Cyst, Fluoride, Lead, Nitrate/Nitrite, Radium 226/228, Selenium, TDS and Turbidity.

Improve Your Tap Water

For those who don’t already know, some people take the production of crystal clear, healthy and refreshing water very seriously. VERY seriously.

Some take it so seriously that they enter their expertly filtered drinking water into competitions and in this case, tap water produced by members of the Atlantic States Rural Water and Wastewater Association competed glass-to-glass for bragging rights, cash rewards and the chance to represent the region in a National competition.

So let’s stop with all the small talk and get right to the drinkin’…. drinkin’ WATER, that is.

WALLINGFORD, Conn. — How does your tap water stack up against the rest of the state? That’s what people at the annual drinking water taste test at the annual meeting of the Atlantic States Rural Water and Wastewater Association wanted to find out on Wednesday.

The water was judged on clarity, bouquet, cleansing properties and aftertaste.

…

Three judges blind-tested water from 12 water systems, six from chlorinated systems and six that were natural, in the state putting a lot of thought and tasting into each entry.

Scores were tabulated and winners were declared. The winner from the chlorinated category came from Sprague.

More testing, more tasting and more numbers later, the system from the Chatham Acres Senior Housing in East Hampton won in the natural filters division.

Then the two winners went head to head, or lip to lip and sip by sip.

“The winner had a little bit of a slight minerally taste,” said Ed Bailey, of Middlefield. “It almost seemed natural, whereas the other one had a soft taste to it.”

With the tension mounting an overall winner was declared — La Framboise Water Services, which handles the water at Chatham Acres. ( source )

So there you have it. Water testing of a far less technical nature, yet still a very important process since ‘chemically safe’ water tasting like raw sewage won’t get consumed by the average person.

Clean tasting water has zero contaminants, right?

Not by a long shot! Many very dangerous contaminants have no discernible taste or odor to them at levels potentially harmful to humans, pets, livestock, etc. Example: Bacteria in water.

Other contaminants may exist in water at levels low enough to escape detection, yet exposure to them over a prolonged period of time may result in serious harm to a person. Example: Arsenic in water.

Arsenic Test Kit

Bacteria Test Kit

]]> http://test-for.com/blog/2010/11/water-taste-test-winner-announced-in-connecticut/feed/ 0 http://test-for.com/blog/2010/11/state-agrees-more-testing-needed-at-quarry-site/ http://test-for.com/blog/2010/11/state-agrees-more-testing-needed-at-quarry-site/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:03:35 +0000 Water Testing Blog http://watertestingblog.com/?p=2793

Water Quality Test Kit
for 15 Different Water Parameters

No one would dare question the belief that industry has a way of making messes and leaving them for others to clean up… or just leaving them and hoping no one ever realizes a mess got made in the first place. Some folks in a New Jersey community believe they have caught a company red-handed at a closed quarry and have asked the State to step in.

Residents and public officials in Basking Ridge, NJ asked the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to put pressure on the operators of the closed Millington Quarry on Stonehouse Road because they had evidence which suggested contaminated soil may have gotten trucked into the site over a period of years and used as back fill material.

The DEP issued a letter to Millington Quarry, Inc. and Tilcon New York, Inc. recently stating that it requires additional soil and groundwater testing around the property of the now closed quarry… and they want the testing done in accordance with State approved testing methodologies before the cold weather begins.

Needless to say the DEP’s position pleased the residents and officials in Basking Ridge, NJ.

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has called for additional soil and groundwater testing at the closed Millington Quarry on Stonehouse Road, to the approval of township officials.

Millington Quarry, Inc. and Tilcon New York, Inc., the company that had been quarrying the site before operations ceased last May, were this month informed that the DEP wants further testing at three areas of the quarry where water and soil samples showed a limited presence of contaminants. A letter to the quarry on Oct. 16 called for the quarry to follow the state’s methodology in conducting the additional testing before the onset of cold weather.

…

The township has been embroiled in a legal dispute with the quarry based on suspicions of contaminated soil being trucked into the property over a period of several years. The soil was used to fill in steeply quarried areas. Random testing of some of those truckloads by a township consultant identified the presence of some contaminants, according to township officials.

David Oster, a section chief with the DEP’s office of Brownfields Remediation & Reuse, wrote in his Oct. 4 letter that the quarry’s limited groundwater investigation into wells on the site had shown elevated levels of arsenic, lead and other volatile chemicals in one well, and arsenic exceeding the DEP’s standards in another.

The letter also reported findings of pesticides and other contaminants in some soil samples that exceed the DEP’s standards for residential and non-residential soil cleanup criteria. The quarry owners have long had plans to eventually sell the closed quarry property for redevelopment with home sites. ( source )

Stories like that make us wonder how many companies have knowingly dumped loads of fill material they knew contained higher than expected and/or allowed levels of contaminants in places — and gotten away with it. On second thought, maybe we don’t really want the answer to that question. It might scare us a lot more than we’d like!

Spot testing pays off in the end?

Of course it does and this story proves it! Without the township hiring a consultant to perform sampling and testing on the loads of material entering the quarry the town would never have gotten the data it used to persuade the DEP to intervene.

Remember: The article said “elevated levels of arsenic, lead and other volatile chemicals in one well, and arsenic exceeding the DEP’s standards in another” which means those potentially hazardous items could have seeped into the local groundwater supply undetected and then found their way into the local population’s drinking water if someone had not stepped up done a little bit of testing.

No one will step and test YOUR water for you, though, if you own a private well… and that means whatever contaminants your well pumps up become your responsibility to detect, report and ultimately get rid of.

Well Driller Standard Test Kit tests for Free Chlorine (50 EPA-Approved tests), Ultra Low Total Chlorine (50 tests), Hydrogen Sulfide (50 tests), Total Hardness (50 tests), Iron (50 tests), Nitrates & Nitrites (50 tests), pH (50 tests), Manganese (24 tests), Water Metals (50 tests), Bacteria (1 test)

No matter how you look at it, and regardless of whether you have well water or city water, responsibility for the quality of the water coming out of your faucet rests solely on your shoulders… and if you choose not to test, then you have chosen to blindly accept any contaminants that may or may not have entered your water supply. Kits like the one on the left will do nothing to help you — and neither will anyone else for that matter — if you don’t keep tabs on the quality of your own water supply! Want to test for a few more important water quality parameters? If so, then upgrade to the Well Driller Master Test Kit and add 10 Arsenic Tests, 50 Copper Tests, 2 Lead in Water Tests, and 2 Pesticide Tests!

]]> http://test-for.com/blog/2010/11/state-agrees-more-testing-needed-at-quarry-site/feed/ 0 http://test-for.com/blog/2010/10/replacement-media-for-water-filter-systems/ http://test-for.com/blog/2010/10/replacement-media-for-water-filter-systems/#comments Sat, 16 Oct 2010 16:03:12 +0000 Water Testing Blog http://watertestingblog.com/?p=2720 ‘Tanya1975′ asked…

We bought a house that has a system for water filtering in it and we think the earlier owners were kinda’ nasty and probably did not change the stuff in the system. Ever. And it looks like it’s been here a while. Do you know where we can get new filter stuff for out filter?

First of all, yes we know where you can get replacement water filter media, but we have no idea if they carry the right type of filter media for your filter. You will have to determine what type of filter you have (i.e water softener, iron/manganese removal system, fluoride removal system, arsenic removal system, general water filter, etc.) and what type of filter media it contains.

Granulated Activated Carbon Replacement Filter Media

Acid Neutralizing Replacement Filter Media

Arsenic Removal Replacement Filter Media

Fluoride Removal Replacement Filter Media

Iron & Hydrogen Sulfide Replacement Removal Media

Iron & Manganese Removal Replacement Filter Media

Manganese Greensand Media Replacement Filter Media

KDF Filter Media Blend Replacement Filter Media

Sediment Removal Filter Media Replacement Filter Media

Manganese Greensand Media Replacement Filter Media

So, as you can see, a number of different replacement water filter media types exist… each with its own unique set of physical and chemical characteristics which make it ideal for its intended filtering purpose. Always make sure you check with your water filter’s manual before purchasing replacement water filter media. Otherwise you might accidentally order a whole bunch of something you don’t need, and worse yet, can’t use!

]]> http://test-for.com/blog/2010/10/replacement-media-for-water-filter-systems/feed/ 0 http://test-for.com/blog/2010/10/free-water-testing-in-illinois/ http://test-for.com/blog/2010/10/free-water-testing-in-illinois/#comments Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:03:45 +0000 Water Testing Blog http://watertestingblog.com/?p=2643 The Courts in Illinois will play host to a series of lawsuits alleging that a Rohm & Haas facility allowed a carcinogenic compound known as vinyl chloride to escape into the environment and contaminate the aquifer from which local residents pull their drinking water.

Wikipedia.org has this to say about vinyl chloride: “This colorless compound is an important industrial chemical chiefly used to produce the polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC). At ambient pressure and temperature, vinyl chloride is a gas with a sickly sweet odor. It is highly toxic, flammable and carcinogenic.” ( source )

More than 300 McCullom Lake residents have signed up to get their wells tested for carcinogenic vinyl chloride at Rohm and Haas’ expense.

Of 515 surveys sent out last month by village government, 325 came back wanting the free test, while only 11 responded no, Village President Terry Counley said. Rohm and Haas offered in August to pay for it, more than four years into a series of lawsuits blaming pollution from its Ringwood plant for causing a brain cancer cluster.

“I’d say it’s a very good sign. We’re all in this boat together over here, and we need the answers,” Counley said.

Counley must select a water testing company from a list of firms accredited by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Only people who signed up will get their wells tested, and Counley said he would like to get it done before winter.

Three former village next-door neighbors diagnosed with brain cancer filed the first lawsuits in April 2006, alleging that decades of seepage from a closed 8-acre waste pit fouled their air and groundwater with vinyl chloride and other chemicals.

Thirty-two lawsuits as of today blame the pollution for brain and pituitary tumors in McCullom Lake and the Lakeland Park subdivision in McHenry. ( source )

Thankfully the residents of that region in Illinois have banded together and taken a stand on the matter of well water pollution. With any hope these folks will find some answers from the testing… and after that we hope other communities will band together and investigate possible sources of suspected well water contamination.

Can the average person test their own well water?

While the task of testing well or ground water for the presence of compounds such as vinyl chloride will remain in the hands of certified water testing experts such as National Testing Laboratories, the average person CAN test for other, more common drinking water contaminants.

Companies such as SenSafe and WaterSafe make easy-to-use, accurate at-home water test kits for a number of critical drinking water parameters such as arsenic in water, lead in water, bacteria in water, and heavy metals in water, etc.

Consumers have the option of purchasing drinking water test kits for individual parameters or in multi-parameter test kits such as the Water Quality Test Kit from SenSafe and the All in One test Kit from WaterSafe.

We recently received an email from a parent whose son and friend want to perform arsenic testing on a number of water samples in their area and chart the results.

My question: My son and a co-student are wanting to do a science fair project on arsenic in the ground water. We wanted to check many samples. However, the cost of the kits are prohibitive. Is there a way that the cost of the kits may be reduced for such an endeavor?? (we wanted to use the 100 sample kit.) We would love to use your product and have it on display for the project. Please let us know if this is a possibility.. thank you so very much.

It pleases us to hear that some youngsters have taken an interest in doing a lot of ground water testing for arsenic using an Arsenic Quick Test Kit… but to tell the truth, we don’t actually MAKE that test kit OR physically sell it. The kit gets manufactured by a company called Industrial Test Systems, Inc. ( www.sensafe.com/home.php ).

Having spoken with members of that company’s staff on numerous occasions, we can assure you that other people have successfully used versions of their field-ready arsenic test kit in science fairs in the past and done quite well.

As for whether or not they will cut you a special deal, we cannot say. Last we heard they did have special pricing available for educators so it may prove useful to give them a call and see what they say: (800) 861-9712

Don’t forget to tell them Water Testing Blog sent ya’!

Miniature arsenic test kits for spot testing?

In addition to full-sized arsenic test kits, Arsenic Quick also has a line of smaller test kits that come with either 2 or 5 tests.

Part Number: 481297-2 <2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 24, 30, 40, 45 & >50ppb 2 Tests	Part Number: 481396-2 0, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 & >500 ppb 2 Tests
Part Number: 481303-5 <1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 20, 25, 30, 40, >50, >80, >120, >160 ppb 5 Tests	Part Number: 481300-5 0, 0.3, 0.7, 1.0, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, 20 & >20 ppb 5 Tests
Part Number: 481396-5 0, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 & >500 ppb 5 Tests	Part Number: 481301-5 <0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, >20, >30, >50 ppb 5 Tests

If memory serves us right, a student won some sort of National Award using an Arsenic Quick test kit.

Other water test kits for science fair projects?

Not all students have access to well water or surface water… but that does NOT mean they can’t use water testing as the basis of their science project. Why? Because even tap water varies from place to place and in some places its quality may vary on a daily basis.

Test 4 Water Sources Test 10 Water Sources

WaterSafe Science Project test kits allow students of all ages to participate in educational, hands-on activities related to water quality. Avaliable in two sizes, 4-packs and 10-packs, the WaterSafe science project test kits come with all the supplies needed to test for Lead, Bacteria, Pesticides, Nitrates, Chlorine, Hardness and pH. Each kit also comes with step-by-step instructions, an outline for the water testing project, and a convenient data sheet to record the results.

]]> http://test-for.com/blog/2010/10/arsenic-test-kits-for-science-fair-projects/feed/ 0 http://test-for.com/blog/2010/10/traces-of-arsenic-found-in-well-water-near-elementary-school/ http://test-for.com/blog/2010/10/traces-of-arsenic-found-in-well-water-near-elementary-school/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:03:42 +0000 Water Testing Blog http://watertestingblog.com/?p=2600 As the title stated, routine testing of well water yielded startling results… near an Elementary School in Durham, Connecticut.

Testing of water from several wells showed higher than ‘normal’ amounts of sodium, sulfates, hardness and… dissolved arsenic.

DURHAM — Traces of arsenic in some of the town’s wells have prompted the Department of Health to encouraging residents to test their water, according to a press release posted on the department’s website.

People who live or work around Brewster Elementary School are advised to have their water tested within the next three to six weeks. The department is also asking residents to fill out and submit a report — also on the department’s website — so officials can determine the extent of contamination.

Arsenic, which causes health problems like skin discoloration (melanosis), hardening of the skin (keratosis) and cancer, can contaminate groundwater naturally and through human activities such as mining. It can also come from pesticides and fertilizers that contain arsenic. ( source )

Health officials went on to say that although certain area wells did show elevated levels of arsenic contamination, people do not need to get alarmed just yet. They do not have enough test data to reach any firm conclusions and would like the private well owners to lend a hand and by conducting testing and reporting the results via a form currently available on the Durham Department of Health web site.

For those not aware of the dangers arsenic in drinking water may pose, take a look at some of the prior articles posted on this site:

• What is Arsenic and Can It Harm You?
• Study: Arsenic in Water and Diabetes
• Study: Exposure to Low Levels of Arsenic Lowers Influenza Resistance

Can the general public perform arsenic testing on its own safely?

Absolutely. The Arsenic Quick™ line of arsenic in water test kits offers allows users to quickly and accurately test for dissolved arsenic (As3 & As5) in drinking water in as little as 12 minutes.

Below you will find links to the Arsenic Quick™ test kits offered by (3) three different
online merchants: Filters Fast, Filter Water and Test Products.

• Arsenic Quick™ Test Kits at FilterWater.Com
• Arsenic Quick™ Test Kits at FiltersFast.Com
• Arsenic Quick™ Test Kits at TestProducts.Com

   Arsenic Quick™ at FilterWater.Com

Arsenic Quick™ Test Kit 100 Tests

Arsenic Quick™ Test Mini-Kit 2 Tests

   Arsenic Quick™ at FiltersFast.Com

Arsenic Quick™ Test Kit 2 Tests

Arsenic Quick™ Test Kit 100 Tests

   Arsenic Quick™ at TestProducts.Com

Part Number: 481297-2 Arsenic Quick — 2 Tests	Part Number: 481298 Arsenic Quick — 300 Tests	Part Number: 481300 Arsenic Quick — 5 Tests
Part Number: 481396-2 Arsenic Quick — 2 Tests	Part Number: 481396-5 Arsenic Quick — 5 Tests	Part Number: 481301-5 Arsenic Quick — 5 Tests
Part Number: 481303 Arsenic Quick — 50 Tests	Part Number: 481303-5 Arsenic Quick — 5 Tests	Part Number: 481297-I Arsenic Quick — 50 Tests

For more information on arsenic test kits, take a look at the following web sites: Arsenic-Test-Kit.Com and ArsenicQuick.Com.

At one point residents and officials suspected that radon may have played a part in making people ill (Radon a Suspect in Florida Tumor and Cancer Cases). Outcry in the community prompted the State of Florida to launch an investigation (State of Florida Agrees to Environmental Testing in Acreage Homes Area).

Radon in Air (Long Term Test)

Radon in Air (Short Term Test)

Radon in Water Test (Short or Long Term)

Now, after meeting with residents in the area, going over their histories, testing their water and testing their soil… the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida Department of Health has concluded that living in the Acreage has nothing to do with the unusually high number of brain and central nervous system cancer cases in the area.

In a nutshell, the State of Florida can’t find anything to explain the rash of illnesses.

ACREAGE – The State Health Department’s cancer cluster investigation in the Acreage is coming to an end, with no answers for the hundreds of residents desperate to know why their area is experiencing a higher than usual rate of cancer.

A report released today indicates testing on water and soil samples is over.

Following countless hours of review and concurrence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida Department of Health officials say there’s nothing they can definitively point to as a source of the pediatric brain and central nervous system cancers in the community.

They also determined that having a longer residency in the Acreage posed no higher risk for brain tumors among its children.

Health experts analyzed the history and lifestyle of 13 Acreage families, whose children and teenagers have been diagnosed with cancer.

The group formed to keep an eye on the suspected cancer cluster disbanded just last week. ( source )

So what does Water Testing Blog think about the situation in Acreage? Quite frankly it SCARES us in ways we cannot explain.

Not to sound like the Twilight Zone, but imagine, if you will, that your children and your neighbors’ children have all developed serious and potentially life threatening conditions… and no one can figure out why.

Hopefully someone will figure out why those poor people have gotten sick because in all honesty, if such a ‘random and unexplainable’ spike in cancer can occur there, what would stop it from happening where WE or YOU live?

Plan of action for the rest of us?

In all honesty, we can never truly test for every possible contaminant that could find its way into our drinking water. We can only test for the things most likely to show up on a regular or semi-regular basis and have a ‘full’ analysis performed by a certified water testing lab at set intervals.

The average person has a number of options when it comes to testing their own water. The easiest way, aside from having someone else do the testing, usually involves the use of a test kit from companies like SenSafe and WaterSafe.

You will find several examples of popular home water testing kits from each manufacturer below:

All in One Water Test Kit from WaterSafe

Well Water Test Kit from WaterSafe

Chlorine and Hardness Test Kit from WaterSafe

Water Quality Test Kit from SenSafe

Water Metals Test Kit from SenSafe

Arsenic Quick Test Mini-Kit from SenSafe

In the end, though, and as we ALWAYS suggest, if you have serious reason to suspect your well water or municipal/public water supply may have become contaminated, seek the expertise of a certified water testing laboratory such as National Testing Laboratories.