Human health risk assessment of heavy metals from surface water of Chott Merouane, Algeria

ABSTRACT

Today, human health risk caused from exposure to heavy metals in water is a great international concern. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the content of Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn) in surface water (24 samples) of Chott Merouane and to estimate the potential health risks of metals to humans. The concentrations (mg/L) of metals ranged between 0.05 and 0.89 for Cd, bDL (below detection limit) – 2.05 for Cr, 0.03–0.27 for Cu, 0.4–7.4 for Fe, 0.15–1.19 for Mn, 0.27–4.53 for Ni, 0.23–5.87 for Pb, 0.01–0.28 for Zn. Both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risks via oral and dermal absorption pathways were evaluated from two exposure scenario (Residential and Industrial scenario). For the first scenario, the Hazard Quotient (HQ) and Hazard index (HI) for both the children and the adult via oral pathway were less than one, whereas HI for children was greater than one (1.36) indicating an unacceptable risk of non-carcinogenic effects on child health. Carcinogenic Risk (CR) was found within the USEPA’s acceptable cancer risk range of 10⁻⁶–10⁻⁴. For the industrial exposure, the HI_total at S1, S2 and S7 were slightly higher than the acceptable guideline (1.47, 1.98 and 1.11, respectively). Also, the CR_total of Cr at these stations was slightly higher than the acceptable cancer risk range (1.8E-04, 1.6E-04 and 1.7E-04, respectively). Both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks were mainly attributed to the oral pathway. The findings of this study indicating minor adverse health risk but suggest necessary conservation and management measures should be taken to improve the water quality of this Ramsar wetland.

KEYWORDS:

• Heavy metals
• carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk
• residential exposure
• Chott Merouane

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Lahcini Ali and Ouadnani Nadji for their field support in Chott Merouane. We also gratefully acknowledge the useful comments and helpful information from the editors and the anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

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