Abstract
An increased nitrate (NO3−) concentration in groundwater has been a rising issue on a global scale in recent years. Different consumption mechanisms clearly illustrate the adverse effects on human health. The goal of this present study is to assess the natural and anthropogenic NO3− concentrations in groundwater in a semi arid area of Rajasthan and its related risks to human health in the different groups of ages such as children, males, and females. We have found that most of the samples (n = 90) were influenced by anthropogenic activities. The background level of NO3− had been estimated as 7.2 mg/L using a probabilistic approach. About 93% of nitrate samples exceeded the background limit, while 28% of the samples were beyond the permissible limit of 45 mg/L as per the BIS limits. The results show that the oral exposure of nitrate was very high as compare to dermal contact. With regard to the non-carcinogenic health risk, the total Hazard Index (HITotal) values of groundwater nitrate were an average of 0.895 for males, 1.058 for females, and 1.214 for children. The nitrate health risk assessment shows that about 38%, 46%, and 49% of the samples constitute the non-carcinogenic health risk to males, females, and children, respectively. Children were found to be more prone to health risks due to the potential exposure to groundwater nitrate.
Highlights
Background level of nitrateMost published NO3− concentrations have been described as anthropogenic groundwater contamination, which were estimated by different techniques
Most of the area is covered by agricultural land in which agriculture production is scattered over both kharif, and rabi cultivation; kharif cultivation is based on precipitation and rabi cultivation is especially based on groundwater source
The high and moderate positive loadings of electrical conductivity (EC) (0.986), total dissolved solids (TDS) (0.983), N a+ (0.945), C l− (0.958) and S O42− (0.945) were observed with PC1. This suggests that high N O3− in the groundwater may derive from several anthropogenic sources, including fertilisers, septic tanks, domestic sewage, animal waste, and w astewater[65]
Summary
Most published NO3− concentrations have been described as anthropogenic groundwater contamination, which were estimated by different techniques. In this study the background concentration of nitrate in groundwater had been estimated using a statistical approach (mainly the cumulative probability distribution of the dataset). The cumulative probability method was used to differentiate between various nitrate populations occurrences in groundwater. The background concentrations and anthropogenic concentrations of nitrate had been marked with a sharp inflection point at 9.3 mg/L (Fig. 2a). The natural background level (NBL) and anthropogenic level (APL) were calculated as the 9 0th percentile (7.2 mg/L) and 1 0th percentile (13.3 mg/L) of the events separated by inflection point, respectively.
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