Hydrogeochemistry and fluoride contamination in the hard rock terrain of central Telangana, India: analyses of its spatial distribution and health risk

Abstract

Groundwater is the primary source for drinking uses in the hard rock terrain of central Telangana, India, where most of the people rely on it for daily uses. Therefore, this study was carried out to comprehend the fluoride contamination and its associated health risk assessment to local dwellers. For this study, 54 groundwater samples were collected from bore wells and hand pumps in the study region and were analysed for fluoride and other physicochemical parameters. The results indicated by statistical mean values of Na + , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and K + are 182.14, 59.79, 23.90 and 3.74 mg/L, respectively, while HCO 3 2− , Cl − , SO 4 2− and NO 3 − are 236.1, 230.8, 167.7 and 81.9 mg/L, respectively. The fluoride concentration ranged from 0.8 to 4.2 mg/L, with a mean of 2.21 mg/L. Eighty-one percent of the groundwater samples exceeded the World Health Organization's water quality limit of 1.5 mg/L for fluoride. Piper trilinear diagram (PTD) signifies that groundwater quality in the study region is characterized by Na +-Cl − , Ca 2+-Mg 2+-Cl − and Na +-HCO 3 −-Cl − hydrochemical water types. Gibbs diagrams indicate that all the major ion chemistry of the groundwater in the study region is controlled by rockwater interactions, while evaporation plays a minor role. The health risk assessment results revealed that the associated hazard quotient (HQ) for the age range of 6 to 12 months within about 100% of the study area exceeded the acceptable HQ limits of 1. Furthermore, the HQ for age categories 6-11 years, 11-16 years and 16-18 years within 96.2, 68.5 and 50%, respectively, of the study locations were larger than 1. Results also indicate that age group 6 to 12 months was most prone to health risks in the study region. Therefore, in the study region, people should be taken necessary actions to abolish the groundwater contamination to protect the local dweller's health.

Assessment of Groundwater Quality and Human Health Risk (HHR) Evaluation of Nitrate in the Central-Western Guanzhong Basin, China

“…Approximately 10% of groundwater samples were brackish water with TDS values ranging from 1000 to 3000 mg/L. High nitrate concentrations [27] in this field were characterized by fresh water (TDS < 1000 mg/L) [44], especially TDS values < 500 mg/L.…”

“…It can be seen that agricultural activities had a greater effect than industry on the nitrate content in groundwater in the Guanzhong Basin. Moreover, according to the levels of nitrate risk defined in [27], the percentages of low risk (<45 mg/L), high risk (45–100 mg/L), and very high risk (>100 mg/L) were 90.58%, 8.9%, and 0.52%, respectively. The concentration of nitrate in the study area poses a great risk to human drinking water.…”

“…Large amounts of irrigation water and fertilizer are used each year in traditional farming areas, causing nitrate to pollute groundwater which is mainly used for human consumption. Polluted groundwater may cause great risks to human health [13,27], making it important to study the current status of nitrate pollution and associated health risks in the Guanzhong Basin.…”

Formation and In Situ Treatment of High Fluoride Concentrations in Shallow Groundwater of a Semi-Arid Region: Jiaolai Basin, China

“…Groundwater is an important source of drinking water for human beings and is also the main source of irrigation water for agriculture in many areas. High groundwater fluoride contents can result in excessive uptake of fluoride into the human body through the direct consumption of drinking water, thereby posing a risk to human health [2,[6][7][8][9][10][11]. In addition, the use of high-fluoride groundwater as irrigation water can lead to the build-up of excessive fluoride in crops, thereby posing a risk to the health of the society [12][13][14][15].…”

Assessment of fluoride contamination and distribution: a case study from a rural part of Andhra Pradesh, India

“…A small amount of fluoride is essential to maintain bones and formation of dental enamel (Adimalla and Venkatayogi 2017;. However, prolonged intake of high fluoride in drinking water can surely cause fluorosis (Adimalla and Qian 2019a;Narsimha and Sudarshan 2017a;Li et al 2018). In general, fluoride is released into groundwater from fluorine-bearing minerals such as fluorite, fluorapatite, biotite, apatite, muscovite, hornblende, villiaumite, tremolite, sellaite, cryolite, topaz, fluocerite, yttrofluorite, gagarinite, bastnasite, microlite, sphene, wohlerite, fluormica, epidote, amphibole, Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https ://doi.org/10.1007/s1320 1-019-0968-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.…”