Arsenic Health Risk Assessment through Groundwater Drinking (Case Study: Qaleeh Shahin Agricultural Region, Kermanshah Province, Iran)

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Author

Department of the Environment, College of Basic Sciences, Hamedan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Hamedan, Iran

Abstract

Groundwater resources make up an important portion of potable and irrigation water in Iran, making it important to monitor toxic elements of pollutants in these resources in order to protect the inhabitants' health. The current study has been carried out to assess the health risks, caused by trivalent inorganic arsenic-polluted groundwater in Qaleeh Shahin Plain, an important agricultural region in Kermanshah Province. For this purpose, in total 20 groundwater wells have been chosen randomly. The samples have been filtered (0.45 μm) and preserved with HNO3 to a pH level lower than 2, then to be taken in acid-washed polyethylene bottles and kept at a temperature of 4 °C for further analysis. Finally, As(III) concentration has been determined, using ICP-OES with three replications. Results have shown that mean content of As (ppb) in groundwater samples were 6.0 ± 3.0 for winter and 9.0 ± 6.0 for summer in 2014. Also, according to the results, the computed values of the hazard quotient (HQ) and target risk (TR) of groundwater samples were below 1 and less than 10E-06, respectively; therefore, non-carcinogenic effect (chronic risk) and carcinogenic exposure are not likely for the inhabitants of this study area. However, due to over and long-term use of agricultural inputs in the study area, it is recommended to have some paramount consideration for better management and care of using agricultural inputs, especially chemical fertilizers, arsenical pesticides, or herbicides, and for treatment of As-polluted groundwater with proper removal methods prior to preparation of drinking water.

Keywords

References

Arain, M. B., Kazi, T. G., Baig, J. A., Jamali, M. K., Afridi, H. I., Shah, A. Q., Jalbani, N. and Sarfraz R. A. (2009). Determination of arsenic levels in lake water, sediment, and foodstuff from selected area of Sindh, Pakistan: estimation of daily dietary intake. Food Chem. Toxicol., 47(1): 242-248.
Bissen, M. and Frimmel, F. H. (2003). Arsenic - a review. Part I: Occurrence, toxicity, speciation, mobility. Clean Soil Air Water, 31(1): 9-18.
Chen, J. (2002). Analysis of water environment in the Xinjiang arid region. Arid Environ. Monit., 16: 223-227.
Chen, C. J. (2014). Health hazards and mitigation of chronic poisoning from arsenic in drinking water: Taiwan experiences. Rev. Environ. Health, 29(1-2):13-19.
 
Emmanuel, E., Pierre, M. G. Perrodin, Y. (2009). Groundwater contamination by microbiological and chemical substances released from hospital wastewater and health risk assessment for drinking water consumers. Environ. Int., 35(4): 718-726.
Fatmi, Z., Azam, I., Ahmed, F., Kazi, A., Gill, A. B., Kadir, M. M., Ahmed, M., Ara, N., Janjua, N. Z., Panhwar, S. A., Tahir, A., Ahmed, T., Dil, A., Habaz, A. Ahmed, S. (2009). Health burden of skin lesions at low arsenic exposure through groundwater in Pakistan, is river the source?. Environ. Res., 109(5): 575-581.
Josef, G., Thundiyil, Y., Smith, A. H. Steinmaus, C. (2007). Seasonal variation of arsenic concentration in wells in Nevada. Environ. Res., 104(3): 367-373.
Khan S., Shahnaz M., Jehan N., Rehman S., Shah M.T., Din I. 2013. Drinking water quality and human health risk in Charsadda district. Pak. J. Clean. Prod., 60: 93-101.
Liang, Q., Xue, Z. J., Wang, F., Sun, Z. M., Yang, Z. X. Liu, S. Q. (2015). Contamination and health risks from heavy metals in cultivated soil in Zhangjiakou City of Hebei Province, China. Environ. Monit. Assess., 187(12): 754.
Liang, C. P., Wang, S. W., Kao, Y. H. Chen, J. S. (2016). Health risk assessment of groundwater arsenic pollution in southern Taiwan. Environ. Geochem. Health, 38: 1271-1281.
Hall, G. E. M., Pelachat, J. C. Gautier, G. (1999). Stability of inorganic arsenic (III) and arsenic (V) in water samples. J. Anal. Atom. Spectrom., 14: 205-213.
Hudson-Edwards, K. A., Jamieson, H. E., Charnock, J. M. and Macklin, M. G. (2005). Arsenic speciation in waters and sediments of ephemeral floodplain pools, ríos Agrio- Guadiamar, Aznalcóllar, Spain. Chem. Geol., 219(1-4): 175-192.
Kavcar, P., Sofuoglu, A. Sofuoglu, S. C. (2009). A health risk assessment for exposure to trace metals via drinking water ingestion pathway. Int. J. Hyg.Environ. Health, 212(2): 216-227.
Muhammad, S., Shah, M. T. and Khan, S. (2011). Health risk assessment of heavy metals and their source apportionment in drinking water of Kohistan region, northern Pakistan. Microchem. J., 98(2): 334-343.
Nasrabadi, T., Nabi Bidhendi, G. R., Karbassi, A. R. and Mehrdadi, N. (2010). Evaluating the efficiency of sediment metal pollution indices in interpreting the pollution of Haraz River sediments, southern Caspian Sea basin. Environ. Monit. Assess., (2010) 171: 395-410.
Nazari, S. and Sobhanardakani, S. (2015). Assessment of pollution index of heavy metals in groundwater resources of Qaleh Shahin plain (2013-2014). J. Kermanshah Univ. Med. Sci., 19(2): 102-108.
Nguyen, V. A., Bang, S., Viet, P. H. Kim, K. W. (2009). Contamination of groundwater and risk assessment for arsenic exposure in Ha Nam province, Vietnam. Environ. Int., 35(3): 466-472.
Pizarro, I., Gomez, M., Camara, C. and Palacios, M. A. (2003). Arsenic speciation in environmental and biological samples extraction and stability studies. Anal. Chim. Acta, 495(1): 85-98.
Rahman, M. A., Hasegawa, H., Rahman, M. M., Miah, M. A. M. and Tasmin, A. (2008). Arsenic accumulation in rice (Oryza sativa L.): human exposure through food chain. Ecotoxicol. Environ. Safety, 69(2): 317-324.
Rahman, M. M., Naidu, R. and Bhattacharya, P. (2009). Arsenic contamination in groundwater in the Southeast Asia region. Environ. Geochem. Health, 31(1): 9-21.
Rapant, S. and Krcmova, K. (2007). Health risk assessment maps for arsenic groundwater content, application of national geochemical databases. Environ. Geochem. Health, 29(2): 131-141.
Rasool, A., Farooqi, A., Masood, S. and Hussain, K. (2016). Arsenic in groundwater and its health risk assessment in drinking water of Mailsi, Punjab, Pakistan. Human Ecol. Risk Assess.,22(1): 187-202.
Singh, S. K. Ghosh, A. K. (2012). Health risk assessment due to groundwater arsenic contamination: children are at high risk. Human Ecol. Risk Assess.,18(4): 751-766.
Singh, S. K., Ghosh, A. K., Kumar, A., Kislay, K., Kumar, C., Tiwari, R. R., Parwez, R., Kumar, N. and Imam, M. D. (2014). Groundwater arsenic contamination and associated health risks in Bihar, India. Int. J. Environ. Res., 8(1): 49-60.
Sobhanardakani, S., Razban, S. S. and Maànijo, M. (2014). Evaluation of concentration of some heavy metals in ground water resources of Qahavand Plain-Hamedan. J. Kermanshah Univ. Med. Sci., 18(6): 339-348.
Sobhanardakani, S. (2016). Evaluation of the water quality pollution indices for groundwater resources of Ghahavand Plain, Hamedan Province, western Iran. Iran. J. Toxicol., 33:35-40.
Sobhanardakani, S. and Nazari, A. (2016). Assessment of Pb and Cd pollution in groundwater resources of Qaleeh Shahin Plain using Heavy Metal Pollution Index in 2014. Health Sys. Res., 12(3): 300-306.
Sobhanardakani, S., Yari, A. R., Taghavi, L. and Tayebi, L. (2016). Water quality pollution indices to assess the heavy metal contamination, Case study: Groundwater resources of Asadabad Plain in 2012. Arch. Hyg. Sci., 5(4): 221-228.
Velea, T., Gherghe, L., Predica, V. and Krebs, R. (2009). Heavy metal contamination in the vicinity of an industrial area near Bucharest. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res., 16: 527-532.
Yari, A. R. Sobhanardakani, S. (2016). Water quality assessment of groundwater resources in Qaleeh Shahin Plain based on Cd and HEI. Int. Arch. Health Sci., 3(3): 101-106.
Pollution
Volume 4, Issue 1
January 2018
Pages 77-82

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics