Water pollution is a major threat to public health worldwide. The health risks of ingesting trace elements in drinking water were assessed in the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Eight trace elements were measured in drinking water, using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), and compared with permissible limits established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak EPA). In addition, health risk indicators such as the chronic daily intake (CDI) and the health risk index (HRI) were calculated. Our results showed that the concentrations of chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), and manganese (Mn) were 2593, 1306, and 695 ng/g, respectively, in Lahore and Jhang, while the concentrations of arsenic (As) in Lahore, Vehari, Multan, and Jhang were 51, 50.4, 24, and 22 ng/g, respectively, which were higher than the permissible limits suggested by the WHO. The values of CDI were found to be in the order of Cr > Ni > Mn > Cu > As > Pb > Co > Cd. Similarly, the health risk index (HRI) values exceeded the safe limits (>1) in many cities (eg, Cr and Ni in Lahore and As in Vehari, Jhang, Lahore, and Multan). The aforementioned analysis shows that consumption of trace element-contaminated water poses an emerging health danger to the populations of these localities. Furthermore, inter-metal correlation and principal component analysis (PCA) showed that both anthropogenic and geologic activities were primary sources of drinking water contamination in the investigated areas.
Keywords: anthropogenic; drinking water; geologic; mass spectrometry; risk assessment; trace elements.