Health risk assessment according to exposure with heavy metals and physicochemical parameters; water quality index and contamination degree evaluation in bottled water

ABSTRACT

This survey analysed 71 bottled water brands in Tehran, Iran. The laboratory analysis was investigated for ten physicochemical parameters and 16 elements, including heavy metals comprising (bicarbonate, fluoride, chloride, nitrate, nitrite, sulphate, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness (TH), Na, Mg, Ca, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr, Ba, and, Zn). Statistical analysis were performed with R software. The water quality index (WQI) approach was applied to investigate water quality, the carcinogen risk (CR) and hazard index (HI) methods were used for assessing the health risks, and the cumulative impacts of heavy metals were evaluated with contamination degree (C_d) and heavy metal evaluation index (HEI). The results showed that among the physicochemical parameters, EC, TDS, TH, and HCO₃ and heavy metals like Sr > Zn > Cu > Ni had the Highest values. The WQI value in totals was 91.86 and had good quality class, and the order was good (60.56%), poor (35.21%), and very poor bottled water (4.22%). The correlation results demonstrated that WQI ~ Fe and Zn ~ Mn had significant correlation coefficients (r = 1). Moreover, there is a significant correlation between TH with Mg and Ca and also between HCO₃ with EC, TH, and Ca, and then between SO₄ with Na. Carcinogen risk for Cr in children and adults was 2 × 10⁻⁴ and 6 × 10^−4, respectively. The responsible pollutants in non-carcinogen risk assessment were F and NO_3, and their HI was greater than one in adult and child subgroups. The values of Cd and HEI were lower than critical limits. Also, Pb had a significant correlation with Cd and HEI (r = 1). This study revealed that bottled water contains minerals and may possess heavy metals, which pose significant human health risks, especially for children.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Bottled water
• water quality index
• health risk assessment
• contamination degree
• heavy metal evaluation index

Author contributions

Methodology; Statistical analysis and Supervision: [Samaneh Abolli], Writing and Original draft: [Hamed Soleimani], Topics selection and Conceptualisation: [Masoomeh Askari], Visualisation: [Maryam Ghani], Review and language editing: [Vahide Oskoei], Supervision, Laboratory analysis, and Data collection: [Mahmood Alimohammadi].

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

Data and supplementary documents will be available on request.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.