Applications of arsenic

Wood preservation
The toxicity of arsenic to insects, bacteria and fungi makes it an ideal component for the preservation of wood. The world wide treatment with chromated copper arsenate, also known as CCA or Tanalith was the largest consumer of arsenic since the introduction of the process in the 1950s. Due to the environmental problems caused by the arsenic most countries banned the use of chromated copper arsenate on consumer products. The ban began in the European Union and in the United States in 2004.

In 2002 in the United States 90% of the 19,600 metric tons of arsenic compounds were used to preserve wood, in 2007 still 50% of the 5,280 metric tons of consumption was used for this purpose. In the European Union the use of arsenic in consumer products According to the USEPA's website, CCA lumber was discontinued for residential and general consumer construction on December 31, 2003 and alternative methods are now used like ACQ, Borates, Copper Azole, Cyproconazole, and Propiconazole.

Although discontinued this application is also the one of most concern to the general public. The vast majority of older pressure-treated wood was treated with CCA. CCA lumber is still in widespread use in many countries, and was heavily used during the latter half of the 20th century as a structural and outdoor building material. Although the use of CCA lumber was banned in many areas after studies showed that arsenic could leach out of the wood into the surrounding soil (from playground equipment, for instance), a risk is also presented by the burning of older CCA timber. The direct or indirect ingestion of wood ash from burnt CCA lumber has caused fatalities in animals and serious poisonings in humans; the lethal human dose is approximately 20 grams of ash. Scrap CCA lumber from construction and demolition sites may be inadvertently used in commercial and domestic fires. Protocols for safe disposal of CCA lumber do not exist evenly throughout the world; there is also concern in some quarters about the widespread landfill disposal of such timber.

Medical
During the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, a number of arsenic compounds have been used as medicines, including arsphenamine (by Paul Ehrlich) and arsenic trioxide (by Thomas Fowler). Arsphenamine as well as Neosalvarsan was indicated for syphilis and trypanosomiasis, but has been superseded by modern antibiotics. Arsenic trioxide has been used in a variety of ways over the past 200 years, but most commonly in the treatment of cancer. The US Food and Drug Administration in 2000 approved this compound for the treatment of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia that is resistant to ATRA. It was also used as Fowler's solution in psoriasis.

Recently new research has been done in locating tumours using arsenic-74 (a positron emitter). The advantages of using this isotope instead of the previously used iodine-124 is that the signal in the PET scan is clearer as the iodine tends to transport iodine to the thyroid gland producing a lot of noise.

Pigments
Copper acetoarsenite was used as a green pigment known under many different names, including 'Paris Green' and 'Emerald Green'. It caused numerous arsenic poisonings. Scheele's Green, a copper arsenate, was used in the 19th century as a coloring agent in sweets.

Military
After World War I the United States built up a stockpile of 20,000 tons of Lewisite; a chemical weapon, acting as a vesicant (blister agent) and lung irritant. The stockpile was neutralized with bleach and dumped into the Gulf of Mexico after the 1950s. During the Vietnam War the United States used Agent Blue a mixture of Na cacodylate) and dimethyl arsinic acid (cacodylic acid as one of the rainbow herbicides to deprive the Vietnamese of valuable crops.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic#Applications