Health risk assessment of groundwater pollution—A case study of typical city in North China plain

Abstract

This article presents an application of assessing human health risk in typical city of North China plain. Combined with water quality and multi-element analysis, Pb, Cd, Cr⁶⁺, Mn, NO₃ ⁻, F⁻, and As in groundwater samples were chosen to be used for human health risk assessment of drinking water pathway and dermal contact pathway, and results show a good effect. Results indicate that (1) poor water quality is caused by salinity and hardness overstandard; (2) in noncarcinogenic risk, samples that do not pose noncarcinogenic risk only account for 28.46%; in carcinogenic risk, samples that do not pose carcinogenic risk account for 73.08%; (3) the noncarcinogenic risk in the study area decreased in the following order: NO₃ ⁻>Mn>As>F⁻>Cr⁶⁺>Cd>Pb and the carcinogenic risk of the study area decreased in the following order: As>Cd=NO₃ ⁻=Mn=F⁻=Cr⁶⁺=Cd=Pb=0, because the slop factors were not available for the other pollutants, except for As; and (4) in terms of whole study area, the main contribute order of drinking water pathway and dermal contact pathway in human body is drinking water pathway>dermal contact pathway.

Keywords

groundwater / water composition / assessment system / inorganic pollutant / human health

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