Geochemical and health risk evaluation of fluoride rich groundwater in Sattenapalle Region, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

To assess the geochemical mechanisms of fluoride occurrence in the groundwater and its impact on human health, groundwater samples collected from the Sattenapalle Region, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, India were analyzed for various chemical parameters. Results show that the groundwater quality is of alkaline in nature, which is mainly characterized by Na-HCO₃ facies. According to the groundwater quality index, 75% and 25% of the groundwater sampling points come under the poor and very poor groundwater quality categories for drinking purpose, respectively. The fluoride content varies from 1.3 to 12.9 mg/L, with 75% of the groundwater sampling points exceeding the drinking water quality limit of 1.5 mg/L. The study on Ca²⁺+Mg²⁺ vs. HCO${}_3^{-}$+SO${}_4^{2-},$ Na⁺+K⁺ vs. TC, Na⁺ vs. Cl${}^{-},$ HCO${}_3^{-}$ vs. TC, trilinear diagrams and CA indices specifies the soil-water-rock interactions together with dissolution, ion exchange and evaporation as the dominant controlling processes that affect the groundwater chemistry. The non-carcinogenic risk is from 0.83 to 9.77, exceeding its acceptable limit of one in 75%, 90% and 100% of the groundwater samples with respect to men, women and children, respectively, depending upon their body weights. Remedial measures are suggested to reduce the health risk in the study region.

Keywords:

• Fluoride
• groundwater quality
• health risk
• groundwater pollution

Acknowledgements

The third author (Jianhua Wu) is grateful for the financial support granted by various governmental agencies. The authors are grateful to the editors and anonymous reviewers, who helped us in improving the quality of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

The research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (4160238 and 41761144059), the Special Funds for Basic Scientific Research of Central Colleges (300102299301), the Fok Ying Tong Education Foundation (161098), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2015M580804, 2016M590911, 2016T090878 and 2017T100719), the Shaanxi Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2015BSHTDZZ09 and 2016BSHTDZZ03), and the Ten Thousand Talent Program (W03070125).