Re:France’s Zone Rouge – A Forbidden No Man’s Land Poisoned ...
by tom_mellior on Friday April 27, 2018 @05:11AM
(#16939415)
I don't really know how to read this either, but the number 17 as such does not appear anywhere in that paper. This quote may be relevant: "Concentrations of As vary between 72,820 and 1,937 mg/kg" (page 13).
These commas appear to be thousands separators, so that's a maximum of 73 grams per kilogram or 7% per mass of a soil sample. I'm not a doctor, but I would advise against eating significant amounts of these soil samples.
I found this study (https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01267232/document) but I am afraid I don't know how to read the results.
I assume that 17% is the absolute maximum proportion of arsenic ever found in a single small sample.