A cultural practice of drinking realgar wine leading to elevated urinary arsenic and its potential health risk

► Realgar is an arsenic sulfide mineral, and source of highly toxic inorganic arsenic. ► Drinking realgar wines and painting infant's foreheads and limbs with realgar/alcohol slurries is a customary ritual during the Dragon Boat Festival. ► Drinking realgar wines or using realgar based paints on children does result in the significant absorption of arsenic and therefore presents a potentially serious.