How to Sample your Drinking Water

Kit Contents

After you have completed the initial survey and indicated your interest in getting your drinking water tested, we will send you a test kit. Check the contents of your kit. You should have one of each:

Let us know if you are missing anything!


Documenting and Registering your Sample

  • Fill out the paper datasheet supplied with your sample kit and sign to give your permission for us to analyze your water sample. Samples will not be analyzed without this signature.
  • Register your water sample on the Arsenic and Aging project on our citizen science data portal, at https://www.anecdata.org/projects/view/arsenic-and-aging.

Here is how to do it. Go to the URL above. Click on “ + New Observation”. Enter the information you recorded on your datasheet into the online form. Hit Save!

If you have trouble registering your sample, indicate that on your datasheet and we will do it for you.

The Sampling Process

  • If you have well water, run your kitchen faucet for 5 minutes. If you are on public water, sample first thing in the morning before using your kitchen faucet. Do not bypass a kitchen sink filtration system.
  • Collect 45 ml. of water sample into the vial and cap. Dry the tube off, if necessary, without damaging the label. Remove the paper from the Parafilm™ sealing film and seal the tube with it. Do this by stretching the parafilm around the cap and sealing it to itself. It sticks!
  • Place the sealed tube into the small plastic bag supplied with your sample kit and seal.
  • Return your sample in the postage paid envelope with your signed datasheet folded in eighths. That is the only sheet you need to return. There is no hurry, the samples are stable until you are ready to mail them.
  • Put your refrigerator magnet somewhere that you can find it later. You will want your sample number to look up your results when they are available. You can visit the AllAboutArsenic.org website, enter the Arsenic and Aging Project Portal, then type your sample number into the “For Samplers” look-up tool to find your well water test results. You will find other helpful information at the website as well.

Any questions? Contact us at arsenic@mdibl.org