Health risk assessment of toxic elements in groundwater in a major industrial and agricultural basin, (East of Ergene Basin, Turkey)

ABSTRACT

Ergene Basin is an important agricultural and industrial region and an important water resource. In this current research, groundwater quality of east of Ergene Basin was evaluated using water quality index (WQI), and health risk due to groundwater consumption was assessed with HQ, HI, and CR. Multivariate statistical analyses were performed to evaluate the multiple effects of pollutants on groundwater. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses were also performed. All samples were in the “excellent” WQI category. Health risk values for adults and children were below the safe limit, both from digestion and dermal exposure. CR values of As in some samples exceeded the threshold value, both for adults and children. Sensitivity analysis revealed that ingestion rate and exposure frequency for adults and exposure duration and concentration of toxic metal for children were the most sensitive variables affecting probabilistic health risk.

KEYWORDS:

• Groundwater
• water quality index
• health risk
• Ergene Basin

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The datasets used and analyzed for the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.