Evaluation of global arsenic remediation research: adverse effects on human health.

Abstract

Arsenic (As) is one of the human carcinogens with a global peril to human health through direct or indirect exposure to contaminated water, food, air and skin contact. As a result, research on arsenic remediation has surged. However, no report evaluating the trends of studies on the subject has been documented. Therefore, the present study was conducted to examine global research trends on arsenic removal and remediation. Web of Science and Scopus were explored to retrieve published papers on the subject between 1929 and 2020. In all, 2605 articles were published within the survey period, with annual mean and growth rate of 28.63 and 11.11%, respectively. Research productivity raised consistently and peaked in 2019 (9.9%) and 2020 (9.2%). China (n = 574, 22%) ranked first followed by India (n = 361, 10%) and the United States (n = 239, 9.2%). The top 20 productive authors published articles between 19 and 49 with total citations of 442 to 511. The highest recurrent Keywords were arsenic (n = 992, 38.08%), adsorption (n = 519, 19.2%) and arsenic removal (n = 435, 16.72%). This study revealed an improved global research on Arsenic removal with greater research outputs from both developed and developing countries; however, the global collaboration appears to be low (collaboration index of 2.5), hence, the policymakers, governments and researchers should encourage international collaborations and establish research programs that can monitor arsenic contamination globally.