Florida Arsenic Distribution Index: Quantifying the Distribution of Past and Present Arsenic Usage

Maya Scott-Richardson, Marilyn O’Hara Ruiz and Rebecca L. Smith
Additional contact information
Maya Scott-Richardson: Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61802, USA
Marilyn O’Hara Ruiz: Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61802, USA
Rebecca L. Smith: Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61802, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-8

Abstract: Arsenic is an abundant, highly toxic element that is a global health concern due to damage from acute and chronic exposure and the potential for high local concentrations in heavily populated areas. In Florida, arsenic has been used heavily in agricultural, commercial, and industrial applications for decades. While studies have identified and quantified the contributions of arsenic to the state, there are fewer studies that have attempted to index to identify spatial distribution patterns. The aim of this study was to develop representative indices that would identify and estimate the distribution of arsenic from historic and present usage for the state of Florida at the county-level. Eight variables are summarized and categorized into two different types of arsenic indices that represent the arsenic distribution from natural occurrence and anthropogenic practices in Florida. The anthropogenic index had distributions scores that ranged from 0.20 to 1.60 with a mean of 0.61 (SD = 0.34). The natural index had distribution scores that ranged from 1.00 to 3.00 and a mean of 1.47 (SD = 0.43). Our finding noticed comparability between high arsenic distributions mainly occur in counties located in the northwestern and southwestern regions in both the anthropogenic and natural indices with diverse arsenic sources contributions.

Keywords: arsenic; anthropogenic sources; natural sources; agriculture; indexing; geographic information systems; Florida; environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/5/744/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/5/744/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:5:p:744-:d:210185

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().