Arsenic

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Some arsenic that has been dug up from the ground. Only the central black area is arsenic.

Arsenic is chemical element 33 on the periodic table. Its symbol is As.

Arsenic is an element that is known as a metalloid. It can act like a metal and a nonmetal at different times. It does not conduct electricity very well (like most metals), but it is a semiconductor. This means that arsenic can be used in computers to make them faster.

Most people know about arsenic because it is dangerous. Arsenic is toxic and can kill a person if they get too much of it. This really only happens when a person gets poisoned because there is not enough of it in our food to actually hurt us. Sometimes there is too much arsenic in water, and the government tries to make sure that it is removed before people drink the water. Even so, some people believe that we need an extremely small amount of arsenic to make sure that our body works right. We get all of the arsenic that we might need from our food.

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