Indexing methods and chemometric analysis of selected metals and metalloids for drinking water quality assessment in Upper Silesia region, Poland

ABSTRACT

The research focused on the determination of selected metals in tap water from Upper Silesia region (Poland) and the assessment of risk for consumers. The heavy metal pollution index and metal index were used to characterise the potential risk of heavy metals in drinking water. ICP-MS and ICP-OES have been used to measure the concentrations of Co, Mn, Cu, Ni, Pb, As, Zn and Sr. Chemometric analysis of the resulted data was accomplished using principal component analysis and cluster analysis, emphasising both similarities between the composition of the analysed samples and outliers. It was suggested that chemometric analysis can be used as a decision tool for necessary corrective action in the water distribution network, since it emphasises in a fast and intuitive way the samples with unusual chemical composition for a given context. To the best of our knowledge, such research in this area has not yet been carried out.

KEYWORDS:

• Metals
• tap water
• heavy metal pollution index
• principal component analysis
• cluster analysis
• Poland

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank to EkoEnergia - Water - Security Technology Park in Katowice for financial support for this work. Research was carried out as part of the project no.21 “Ionomic approach in agricultural, food and environmental research” between Polish and Romanian Academies of Sciences (2019-2021). Partners are: Institute of Environmental Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences, Zabrze, Poland and Food Science Department, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).