Monitoring of arsenic in drinking water of high schools and assessment of carcinogenic health risk in Multan, Pakistan

Abstract

This study was performed to measure arsenic (As) contents in groundwater/drinking water of high schools and its effects on human health. Chronic daily intake, hazardous quotient (HQ), carcinogenic risk (CR), hazardous index (HI), and carcinogenic indices (CI) for oral and dermal exposure to arsenic were calculated. Samples were taken from high schools in four tehsils of Multan. As contents ranged from 3.25 to 184 µg/l and 99% samples exceeded World Health Organization safe limit (10 µg/l). HQ for Multan city (1.70) and for Multan Saddar (1.38) exceeded USEPA permissible toxic risk value (1.0). CR in four tehsils for oral (0.0001–0.0003) and dermal exposure (0.0000049–0.000011) exceeded USEPA limit (10⁻⁶). HI for tehsil Multan city (1.75) and Multan Saddar (1.42) exceeded the limit (1.0). CI for four tehsils ranged from 0.00022 to 0.0008 exceeding USEPA limit (10⁻⁶) indicating high chronic and carcinogenic health risk to exposed population. Results indicated that groundwater of district Multan is not fit for human consumption due to excessive arsenic contamination. It invites attention of water supplying agency and educational authorities to take steps for provision of arsenic free safe drinking water to students and local area peoples.

Keywords:

• high schools
• arsenic contamination
• groundwater
• health risk assessment
• Multan

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the cooperation of PCRWR for analysis of samples, Muhammad Ashfaq Executive District Officer (Education) and Muhammad Riaz Ahmad Khan District Education Officer (Secondary Education) for facilitation during sampling of drinking water of high schools in District Multan.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.