High levels of arsenic in blood tests
Hi printers, I recently had my blood tested for heavy metals. While lead and mercury were in the normal range, arsenic was quite high. Is arsenic common in print shops? I have lots of old and new type, I set without gloves, wash my hand diligently. I us e Varn typewash outside and with gloves to cleanup. I don’t use any dusting powders.
I am testing my water as well, but cannot figure out where this might be coming from. Thanks in advance for any insight.
Cheers,
Susie
I really don’t know of any sources for arsenic in print shops. Type metal is an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony any arsenic would be a trace element contaminate in the type metal and likely would have drossed off during casting. It should by no more prevalent in a print shop than anywhere else in the environment. When I was working as a full time type caster operator I tested annually and had no measurable change in any heavy metals from before I started.
Here in Arizona arsenic is a common ground water contaminate. There are several areas where the levels are so high that it is quite unsafe to drink water from wells. I lived in one area where it wasn’t considered safe to even irrigate gardens with the well water, yet alone drink it. We test our well water every few years where we now are and it is much better quality I am glad to say.
Thank you, THGroves, this is helpful. We are on city water in suburban San Diego county, but I got a test kit just in case. On further digging it seems that seafood and red wine within 72 hours of a blood test can show elevated levels of arsenic. I will give those up for a week before re-testing. Thanks again Susie
If you take a piece of type to a place that does jewelry and precious metals assay, they can stick it in their XRF machine and tell you exactly what’s in there.
Well, there’s the problem Susie, everyone knows you need white wine with seafood.
Idk where you would be getting a lot of arsenic from printing