ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Dietary Exposure of Contaminants through Drinking Water and Associated Health Risk Assessment
Sana Akhtar1, Rida Fatima1, Zamir Ahmed Soomro2, Munawar Hussain2, Mufeezah Ahsan2, Sajid Rashid Ahmad3
 
More details
Hide details
 
1Department of Environmental Sciences, Kinnaird College for Women, 93-Jail Road, Lahore, Pakistan
2Pakistan Concil of Research in Water Resources, Regional Office, PCRWR, 6.4 Km,
Main Raiwind Road, Lahore, Pakistan
3College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Quaid-e-Azam Campus, University of the Punjab,
Lahore, Pakistan
 
 
Submission date: 2017-05-24
 
 
Final revision date: 2017-06-30
 
 
Acceptance date: 2017-07-11
 
 
Online publication date: 2018-01-15
 
 
Publication date: 2018-01-26
 
 
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2018;27(2):501-511
 
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
This study investigated physico-chemical drinking water quality of 115 water supply schemes of of District Mianwali along with estimating the health risks associated with the intake of arsenic and flouride in drinking water. One sample was collected from the source end while two samples were collected from consumer ends of each scheme. Overall results showed that 81% of the water samples were safe while 19% were unsafe for drinking purposes. Results showed that TDS (30%), chloride (15%), sulphate (40%), calcium (40%), sodium (14.2%), hardness (24%), nitrate (13%), flouride (30%), and arsenic (7%) exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Pearson correlation matrix also showed statistically significant relationships (p<0.01) between various physico-chemical parameters and statistically strong significant positive relationships (r = 0.68-1.00, p<0.01) between TDS, Ca, SO42-, and hardness.There was no variation in the source and consumer end water quality. Risk assessment revealed a low potential health risk to the population of Mianwali for arsenic at source 0.4309<1 (mean) and consumer ends 0.70438<1 (mean), and F- 0.4339<1 at source (mean) and 0.4068<1 (mean) at consumer ends. Hence, this study is in time for the authorities to act immediately, as Mianwali groundwater quality is deteriorating.
eISSN:2083-5906
ISSN:1230-1485
Journals System - logo
Scroll to top