Simple Test Could Make World's Water Supplies Safer

From the University of Edinburgh today, scientists have devised a way in which water can be analysed by villagers, whose wells may be affected, without the need for laboratory technicians to carry out complicated analysis. Arsenic poisoning is thought to affect up to 100 million people worldwide, with around million people believed to develop cancer as a result. While skin cancer is the most common cancer, arsenic poisoning can also cause various blood cancers or cancer of the kidney or bladder.
The test uses a colour-coded system where the water turns red, remains the same or turns blue depending on whether there is a major contamination of arsenic, a small amount of arsenic present or no arsenic at all.