In order to prevent new cases and death from cancerous and non-cancerous diseases, the Safe Drinking Water Act directed the Environmental Protection Agency to revise arsenics levels and specified the maximum contaminant level (MCL). MCLs are set as close to the health goals as possible, considering cost, benefits and the ability of public water systems to detect and remove contaminants using suitable treatment technologies.In 2001, Environmental Protection Agency adopted a lower standard of MCL 0.01 mg/L (10 ppb) for arsenic in drinking water that applies to both community water systems and non-transient non-community water systems.In some other countries, when developing national drinking water standards based on the guideline values, it is necessary to take account of a variety of geographical, socio-economic, dietary and other conditions affecting potential exposure. These factors lead to national standards that differ appreciably from the guideline values. That is the case in countries such as India and Bangladesh, where the permissible limit of arsenic in absence of an alternative source of water is 0.05 mg/L. Challenges to implementation
Arsenic removal technologies are traditional treatment processes which have been tailored to improve removal of arsenic from drinking water. Although some of the removal processes, such as precipitative processes, adsorption processes, ion exchange processes, and separation (membrane) processes, may be technically feasible, their cost may be prohibitive.For underdeveloped countries, the challenge is finding the means to fund such technologies.
See also
2007 Peruvian meteorite event – a meteorite impact believed to have caused arsenic poisoning
Arsenic contamination of groundwater
Mary Ann Cotton – serial arsenic poisoner
Felicia Dorothea Kate Dover –  arsenic poisoner
James Marsh (chemist) – invented the Marsh test for detecting arsenic
Toroku arsenic disease

References
Further reading
Atlas (color) of Chronic Arsenic Poisoning (2010), Nobuyuki Hotta, Ichiro Kikuchi, Yasuko Kojo, Sakuragaoka Hospital, Kumamoto, ISBN 978-4-9905256-0-6. A 2011 article in the journal Social Medicine discusses community interventions to combat arsenic poisoning: Beyond medical treatment, arsenic poisoning in rural Bangladesh. D. J. Vaughan and D. A. Polya (2013): Arsenic – the great poisoner revisited. Elements 9, 315–316. PDF (update on the world situation in 2013)

External links
Arsenic poisoning at Curlie