Ronkart, and 5 co-authors, reported in 2007 that a method using Ion Chromatography hyphenated to an Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer was developed (2007) to accurately determine arsenite (AsIII), arsenate (AsV), mono-methylarsonic acid (MMAAV), dimethylarsinic acid (DMAAV) and arsenobetaine (AsBet) in different water matrices. The developed method showed a high sensitivity with detection limits for each arsenic species close to 0.4 pg injected. Arsenite and arsenate were the major species found in surface and groundwater, but AsBet and DMAAV were found in some surface waters, which has never been reported before, while in some natural mineral waters located in volcanic region, the arsenic content exceeded the maximal admissible arsenic content by European legislation standards and the predominant form was AsV.
The authors concluded that A method for arsenic speciation by IC-ICP-MS was developed which allowed the simultaneous separation of five arsenic species (AsBet, DMAAV, AsIII, MMAAV and AsV) in various types of water samples with LODs close to 20 ng l1 for each arsenic compounds. In each case the total arsenic concentration obtained by ICP-MS was in good agreement with the sum of the arsenic species obtained by IC-ICP-MS.
Based on arsenic speciation in well and surface waters, arsenite and arsenate were the major molecules, while in surface water, both DMAAV and AsBet were found. The
occurrence of these methylated forms was probably due to micro-organisms as in groundwater and natural mineral waters, no methylated products were detected.
The concentration of arsenic in some natural mineral waters analysed in this study exceeded the European Directive 2003/40/CE limit. The developed method is available
to identify and quantify the arsenic species present in natural and drinking water at trace levels, which might be particularly important for the toxicity assessment in
regions that may suffer of natural arsenic contamination.
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