Arsenic Project:  Possible research topics
 
Pressure-treated wood
 
How much arsenic is in CCA pressure-treated wood?  How does it vary with depth?
 
How much arsenic can be removed from pressure-treated wood?  Removed?  How?  By rain water, by abrasion, by touching?  With what?  a bare hand, a hamburger?
 
Can PTW be treated  so that arsenic is less available?
 
Are there PTW structures on campus?  Is there any evidence of arsenic release into the immediate environment.
 
How much arsenic is released when PTW is burned?
 
How can you tell if wood has been treated with an arsenic-containing preservative?
 
Is there arsenic underneath a deck made from CCA pressure-treated wood.
 
How much arsenic leaches out of a pressure-treated dock immersed in (a) seawater and (b) lake water?
 

Soil
 
What happens to arsenic that leaches out of a pressure treated deck?  Does arsenic get trapped by the soil?
 
Can plants growing near a pressure treated structure extract arsenic from the soil?
 
What concentrations of arsenic can be found in soil in and around the campus?  Where does the arsenic come from?
 
Do orchards have a higher concentration of arsenic in the soil than soil that has not been home to trees treated with the relevant chemicals?
 
Can contaminated soil be cleaned up by growing plants that take up arsenic?  What is phytoremediation?
 
Does the chemical form of arsenic in soil change over time?
 
Do any commonly used herbicides or weedkillers contain arsenic?  If so what happens to the arsenic after the product has been applied?
 
Do soil bacteria change the chemical form of arsenic?
 
Could earthworms be used as indicators of arsenic contamination in soil?
 
 
Water
 
How much arsenic is in Amherst tap water?  Campus pond, Connecticut River?  Does it depend on where you look or when you look?  Where does this arsenic come from?
 
Is there arsenic in the drinking water from the fountains around campus?  Can you measure arsenic in the various brands of bottled water?
 
In view of the new EPA maximum contaminant level of 10 ng/mL, is there cause for concern over UMass drinking water?
 
Can you devise and evaluate procedures for removing arsenic from drinking water?
 
Where in the world are the most serious problems with drinking water contamination?  What are the causes of these situations?  What suggestions can you make for procedures to alleviate such contamination?
 
Do chicken farms contribute to arsenic contamination of surface water due to the use of arsenic-containing feed supplements?
 
Can aquatic plants remove arsenic from contaminated water?
 
 
Food
 
How much arsenic do we ingest from a normal diet?  Which foods have the most arsenic?  Where does this arsenic come from?
 
Are chickens are potential source of arsenic in our diet.  Can you measure arsenic in any chicken product?
 
Does cooking affect the chemical form of arsenic?
 
Are all chemical forms of arsenic found in food equally toxic?
 
Which beverages contain the most arsenic?  Where does this arsenic come from?
 
 
Analytical Chemistry

 
What is the lowest concentration in solution that you can masure with the test kit and instrumentation available to you. Are there significant differneces between the two Hach test kits?
 
Can the detection limit of the Hach kit be improved (lowered) by leaving the strip in conact with the evolved arsine gas for a (much) longer period?
 
Can the Hach test kit be adapted to measure arsenic in seafood?
 
Can preconcentration procedures be used in conjunction with a measurement technique so as to lower the detection limit? Evaporation? solid-phase extraction by ion-exchange?
 
Can arsenic be determined by a color-forming reaction?
 
What is the lowest concentration that can be detected by tiration with permanganate?
 
Is it possible to "read" the Hach test strips with the help of a scanner and suitable software (which we have in my group)? Can this be developed into a quantitative procedure.
 
Can you separate several different forms of arsenic before measuring with the test kit (or other technique)? Is paper chromatography a possibility? What about ion-exchange solid-phase extraction?
 
 
Miscellaneous
 
Was arsenic ever used in embalming fluids?  Are cemetaries a significant risk in Amherst? 
 
Are deicing salts a source of arsenic contamination?
 
Does mold produce volatile arsenic compounds?  Is there any substance to the idea that Napoleon died of arsenic poisoning because his living quarters contained moldy wallpaper with a green pigment made from an arsenic compound?
 
Just exactly how does arsenic interact with living organisms?  Do living organisms have detoxification mechanisms?
 
Why is arsenic so toxic, whereas phosphorus (another member of the same group in the periodic table) is essential for life? Can tolerance to arsenic be induced?
 
How much arsenic is in cigarettes?