Evaluation of the toxicological effects of uranium on human health in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, with reference to the water quality index

Abstract

Groundwater is an important resource and approximate 80% of the world’s population depends solely on it to satisfy their needs. In the present investigation groundwater quality was assessed using WQI. For the same parameters viz, temperature, pH, conductivity, DO, alkalinity, TDS, sulphate, fluoride, bicarbonate, chloride, uranium, total hardness, calcium and magnesium hardness were assessed during post monsoon period in November 2021 in the Chandrapur region. For conducting this research total 116 groundwater samples were collected from different hydrological stations for the assessment of WQI. WQI is an important tool to assess quality of water for drinking and is classified as excellent to unsafe, i.e., 0-100 score. In this investigation WQI was found to be in the range between 27.63-674.56 exceeding both minimum and maximum score. The results of the present investigation showed that only 5.17% of water is safe for drinking,18% of water indicated poor water quality, 15% of water has very poor water quality and 77% of water is unsuitable for drinking purpose and proper treatment is required before use. During this investigation uranium in groundwater was also assessed considering its chemotoxical and radiological effects on human health. The chemotoxical and radiological effects were analyzed adopting standard equations given by USEPA. The radiological risk of mortality and morbidity was found to be 1.37E-05-1.47E-05, respectively. Thus, presence of uranium was noted and radiological risk was found to be below the permissible limit of AERB standard. The chemical toxicity of average value of Lifetime Average Daily Dose (LADD) and Hazard Quotient (HQ) was observed 0.315 and 0.00571, respectively and chemical toxicity of LADD was found to be in 8.62% sample population and above the permissible limits which can affect human health and can have kidney toxicity, bone and lung toxicity.