Alharbi, T.; El-Sorogy, A.S. Health Risk Assessment of Nitrate and Fluoride in the Groundwater of Central Saudi Arabia. Water2023, 15, 2220.
Alharbi, T.; El-Sorogy, A.S. Health Risk Assessment of Nitrate and Fluoride in the Groundwater of Central Saudi Arabia. Water 2023, 15, 2220.
Alharbi, T.; El-Sorogy, A.S. Health Risk Assessment of Nitrate and Fluoride in the Groundwater of Central Saudi Arabia. Water2023, 15, 2220.
Alharbi, T.; El-Sorogy, A.S. Health Risk Assessment of Nitrate and Fluoride in the Groundwater of Central Saudi Arabia. Water 2023, 15, 2220.
Abstract
High nitrate and fluoride contamination in groundwater cause a variety of disorders, including methemoglobinemia, teratogenesis, and dental and skeletal fluorosis. The present work assesses the non-carcinogenic health risks posed by nitrate and fluoride in infants, children, and adults using the USEPA method. Groundwater samples were collected from 36 wells and boreholes in three central Saudi Arabia study areas. Nitrate concentrations varied from 0.70 to 47.00 mg/L. None of the 36 studied boreholes had nitrate levels that exceeded WHO guidelines (50.00 mg/L). Fluoride ranged from 0.63 to 2.00 mg/L, and 30.55% of the fluoride samples (11 out of 36) exceeded the WHO recommendations for acceptable drinking water (1.5 mg/L). The average hazard index (HI) values for adults, children, and infants were 0.99, 2.59, and 2.77, respectively. Water samples surpassed the safety level of 1 for adults, children, and infants at 44.44, 97.22, and 100%, respectively. Accordingly, water samples from Jubailah and a few from Wadi Nisah may expose infants, children, and adults to non-cancer health concerns. Infants and children are more vulnerable to non-carcinogenic health risks than adults, possibly due to their lower body weight.
Keywords
nitrate; fluoride; hazard index; groundwater; Saudi Arabia
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Pollution
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
