BRIGHTSURF

Scoping review suggests drinking water is often contaminated with arsenic following wildfires in the region

08.19.26 | PLOS

Change in arsenic concentrations pre- and post-wildfire. The forest plot shows pre- (blue) and post-wildfire (orange) arsenic (As) concentrations along with their percent change for articles reviewed containing this information. Shown are maximum values, except in two cases where means are shown as indicated. The dashed line represents the U. S. EPA’s drinking water limit of 10mg/L. Values below the detection limit for individual studies are noted with a “X” rather than a dot. Credit: Willeford et al., 2026, PLOS Water, CC-BY 4.0

Scoping review suggests drinking water is often contaminated with arsenic following wildfires in the region, especially when mining, agricultural, or urbanized areas were burned.

Article Link: https://plos.io/4qgvqmB

Article Title: Wildfire mobilization of arsenic into water resources: A scoping review of current literature

Author Countries: United States

Funding: Support was provided in part by a research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (R01ES035878 to JR). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

PLOS Water

10.1371/journal.pwat.0000549

19-Aug-2026

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Keywords

Environmental Sciences Pollution Wildfires

Article Information

Journal

PLOS Water

DOI

10.1371/journal.pwat.0000549

Article Publication Date

2026-08-19

COI Statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Contact Information

Charlotte Bhaskar

PLOS

mjpress@plos.org

How to Cite This Article

APA:

PLOS. (2026, August 19). Scoping review suggests drinking water is often contaminated with arsenic following wildfires in the region. Brightsurf News. https://www.brightsurf.com/news/LVDJRGXL/scoping-review-suggests-drinking-water-is-often-contaminated-with-arsenic-following-wildfires-in-the-region.html

MLA:

"Scoping review suggests drinking water is often contaminated with arsenic following wildfires in the region." Brightsurf News, Aug. 19 2026, https://www.brightsurf.com/news/LVDJRGXL/scoping-review-suggests-drinking-water-is-often-contaminated-with-arsenic-following-wildfires-in-the-region.html.