The concentration of potentially hazardous trace elements (PHTEs) among tap drinking water samples from Ilam city, Iran: A probabilistic non-carcinogenic risk study

ABSTRACT

Exposure to potentially hazardous trace elements (PHTEs) through drinking water consumption can endanger the health of the consumer. In this study, the concentration of Aluminium (Al), Iron (Fe), Copper (Cu) and Manganese (Mn) among 288 water samples were collected (March to February 2016) from water distribution networks of Ilam city was measured using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) instrument and the health risk was estimated using the Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) method. The rank order of PHTEs in the drinking water was Cu (0.200 ± 0.200 mg/l)> Fe (0.096 ± 0.094 mg/l)> Al (0.040 ± 0.060 mg/l) > Mn (0.017 ± 0.020 mg/l).The rank order of PHTEs based on the non-carcinogenic risk for the adult consumers were Cu (0.250) > Mn (0.0069) > Fe (0.0067) >Al (0.0027) while the corresponding values for children wereCu (0.310) > Mn (0.0087) > Fe (0.0084) >Al (0.0034).The percentile 95% total target hazard quotient (TTHQ) correlated with the investigated PHTEs in the children and adults were equal to 0.3205 and 0.2600, respectively. Therefore, the exposed population is at the acceptable non-carcinogenic risk due to the relatively low concentration of PHTEs in tap drinking water in Ilam city.

KEYWORDS:

• Potentially hazardous trace elements
• tap drinking water
• risk Assessment
• Ilam
• heavy metals
• trace element

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the student research committee, Ilam University of medical sciences for the financial grants of this study (Code: 74330).

Disclosure statement

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

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ilam University of medical sciences [74330].