Review papersA review of arsenic presence in China drinking water

•We summarized and discussed about As in drinking water for all territories in China.•Possible natural As sources in drinking water, were documented.•Typical environmental conditions for occurrence of geogenic high-As waters.•Anthropogenic As contaminations in China were summarized.

SummaryChronic endemic arsenicosis areas have been discovered in China since 1960s. Up to 2012, 19 provinces had been found to have As concentration in drinking water exceeding the standard level (0.05 mg/L). Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Shanxi Province are historical well-known “hotspots” of geogenic As-contaminated drinking water. The goal of this review is to examine, summarize and discuss the information of As in drinking water for all provinces and territories in China. Possible natural As sources for elevating As level in drinking water, were documented. Geogenic As-contaminated drinking water examples were taken to introduce typical environmental conditions where the problems occurred: closed basins in arid or semi-arid areas and reducing aquifers under high pH conditions. Geothermal water or mineral water in mountains areas can be high-As water as well. For undiscovered areas, prediction of potential As-affected groundwater has been carried out by some research groups by use of logistic regression. Modeled maps of probability of geogenic As contamination in groundwater are promising to be used as references to discover unknown areas. Furthermore, anthropogenic As contaminations were summarized and mining, smelters and chemical industries were found to be major sources for As pollution in China.