Zinc is also important for die-casting, galvanizing and rubber making and can be used as a paint pigment, wood preservative and agricultural fungicide.

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According to the Associated Press news agency, the fire spread quickly because construction workers had recently applied a flammable wood preservative to the exterior of the building.

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However, arsenic is also used in industry (as a wood preservative, and also in paints, dyes, metals, drugs and soaps) and in agriculture and is sometimes released into the environment from factories, industrial plants and farming enterprises.

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