Carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic human health risk assessments of heavy metals contamination in drinking water supplies in Iran: a systematic review

Abstract

The contamination of water due to heavy metals (HMs) is a big concern for humankind; particularly in developing countries. This research is a systematic review, conducted by searching google scholar, Web of Science, Science Direct, PubMed, Springer, and Scopus databases for related published papers from 2010 to July 2021, resulting in including 40 articles. Among the analyzed HMs in the presented review, the average content of Cr, Pb, Ba, Al, As, Zn, and Cd exceeded the permissible limits suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO) and 1,053 Iranian standards. Also, the rank order of Hazard Quotient (HQ) of HMs was defined as Cd>As>Cr>Pb>Li for children which means Cd has the highest non-carcinogenic risk and Li has the least. This verifies to the current order As>Cr>Pb>Fe=Zn=Cu>Cd for adults. The corresponded values of HQ and Hazard Index (HI) in most cities and villages were investigated and the results indicated a lower than 1 value, which means consumers are not at non-carcinogenic risk (HQ). Carcinogenic risk (CR) of As in the adult and children consumers in most of the samples (58.82% of samples for both groups) were investigated too, and it was more than>1.00E-04 value, which determines that consumers are at significant CR.

Comprehensive health risk analysis of heavy metal pollution using water quality indices and Monte Carlo simulation in R software

“…The quantification of contaminant concentrations in the water samples was performed utilizing graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (Perkin Elmer AA-Analyst 200), a well-established and dependable analytical technique renowned for its accuracy and precision in determining the levels of various contaminants in aqueous samples. This method enables precise and reliable measurements of the concentration levels of contaminants, ensuring robust and accurate data acquisition for the subsequent assessment of water quality 21 , 22 . Subsequently, the collected water samples were meticulously labelled and stored in a cool box containing ice packs, ensuring a constant temperature of 4 °C, following standard conditions.…”