Spatial distribution of metal(loid)s in groundwater of a mining dominated area: recognising metal(loid) sources and assessing carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic human health risk

ABSTRACT

The study represents the first systematic risk assessment study in East Singhbhum district, Jharkhand, India for the safety of groundwater for drinking purpose with respect to metal(loid)s. The district is known for its mining and related activities. The results demonstrated that concentrations of the metal(loid)s showed significant spatial variation with Al, Mn, Fe, Ni and Zn exceeding the drinking water standards. Principal component analysis resulted in extraction of four factors explaining 76.3% of the data variability. The extracted principal components pointed towards both geogenic and anthropogenic activities governing the groundwater quality. Risk assessment was quantified by the hazard quotient (HQ) and cancer risk for both adult and child. The risk on human health posed by the metal(loid)s was found to be adverse for Mn with HQ > 1 for child. The chronic risks to the local population were largely contributed by Mn, Co and As. However, the carcinogenic risk for As was within the acceptable cancer risk value of 1 × 10⁻⁴. Considering the geometric mean of the metal(loid)s in the study area, the hazard index (HI) for adult was above unity. Considering all the locations, the HI varied from 0.23 to 13.03 and 0.20 to 11.15 for adult and child, respectively, suggesting that the groundwater is unsuitable for drinking without treatment at most of the locations.

KEYWORDS:

• Groundwater
• metal(loid)s
• risk assessment
• principal component analysis
• East Singhbhum

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), for providing the necessary funding for the study under the Senior Research Associateship Scheme {Grant No. 13(8733-A)/2014-Pool}. Also, authors are thankful to the Director and Environmental Management Group, CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad for providing the necessary laboratory facilities and other logistic support for the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India [Grant Number: 13(8733-A)/2014-Pool].