Determination and health risk assessment of heavy metals in drinking water of Tunceli, Turkey

• Published in: Water resources Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 508 - 516
• Main Authors: Demir, V, Dere, T, Ergin, S, Cakır, Y, Celik, F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01-07-2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquatic Pollution; Arsenic; average daily intake; cities; Copper; cyanides; Drinking water; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Environmental monitoring; Health risks; Heavy metals; Hydrogeology; Hydrology/Water Resources; Metal concentrations; monitoring; Mountains; Public health; Risk; Risk assessment; rivers; sampling; Selenium; snow; towns; Waste Water Technology; Water analysis; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Water quality; Water Quality and Protection: Environmental Aspects; Water sampling; Turkey (country); Tunceli Turkey; Turkey; MED, Turkey; copper; drinking water; health risk assessment; arsenic; statistical analysis
• ISSN: 0097-8078; 1608-344X
• DOI: 10.1134/S0097807815040041

Tunceli, Turkey is one of the small cities in the Eastern Anatolian Region with substantial natural, cultural and historical heritage that is suitable to be a slow city. Water sources are abundant in the area due to rain and heavy snowfall in the mountains, which seeps into the ground or flows into the rivers. Therefore monitoring and conservation of city’s drinking water quality is one of the main issues in the city. The present study was conducted to investigate several heavy metals and cyanide, arsenic, and selenium concentrations of drinking water samples taken from 100 different locations in the city and towns of Tunceli, Turkey during the years 2011 and 2012. In three locations, high levels of copper was found with a range of 2.1–11.5 mg/L, and high levels of arsenic was detected in five locations with a range of 10.5–78.0 μg/L, exceeding the action levels for copper and arsenic. For health risk assessment, the average daily dose and hazard quotient (HQ) were calculated. The region mean values of HQ were found above 1 for arsenic in the samples collected from Mazgirt, while HQ values were below 1 in the rest of the samples.