Groundwater arsenic contamination in China is not caused by environmental pollution and drinking water is not at risk, China disease control experts said, in a response to a recent study by Science journal saying that nearly 20 million people in China could be exposed to water contaminated with arsenic.

Shang Qi, an expert with Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC), said the study was right in stating that more than 19.5 million people are living in areas with arsenic-contaminated groundwater.  

According to the CCDC report in 2008, there were 842 villages with arsenic-contaminated groundwater. Shang said that all of them had since stopped using contaminated water sources.

Han Yongqi, an official at Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, said that the drinking water in Shunyi district, one of the locations that the study mentioned, is safe.