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magnets help reduce arsenic in drinking water

HOUSTON – Researchers at Rice University have discovered an inexpensive way to reduce harmful levels of arsenic in drinking water with the aid of rust particles, a breakthrough that could dramatically cut arsenic poisoning cases in developing nations,
After suspending pure samples of iron oxide, or rust, in water and pulling them out using a magnetic field, scientists discovered that only purified water remained, according to the article.

Researchers repeated the tests using water contaminated with arsenic and found that the tiny rust particles would cling to the arsenic before being pulled out with a magnet, leaving the water virtually arsenic-free, the story noted.

Because the treatment requires no electricity, residents of developing nations where high levels of arsenic occur naturally in water supplies will be able to easily use it, according to the story.

Vicki Colvin, director of the university's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, said in the report that researchers were "surprised to find that we didn't need large electromagnets to move our nanoparticles, and that in some cases hand-held magnets could do the trick."