Health threats for the inhabitants of a textile hub (Tiruppur region) in southern India due to multipath entry of fluoride ions from groundwater

Abstract

The main objective of the study is to assess the groundwater quality based on water quality index and health threats associated with fluoride contamination in the Tiruppur region of southern India. Totally 40 groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for various physicochemical parameters such as pH, EC, TDS, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl−, HCO3-, SO42−, NO3- and F−. The dominance of major cations and anions conforms to the following order Ca2+> Na+> K+> Mg2+ and Cl− > HCO3- > SO42-> NO3- > F−, respectively. About 48% of the groundwater samples indicated Ca–Mg–Cl water type in the Piper trilinear diagram. The Gibbs plot indicated that all the water samples fell under rock dominance. Water quality index (WQI) results showed that 22.5, 75 and 2.5% of the samples represented good, poor and very poor quality water types, respectively. The fluoride ions in groundwater of this region ranged from 0.1 to 2.70 mg/L with a mean of 1.33 mg/L. About 50% of the groundwater samples experienced fluoride concentration exceeding the permissible limit of 1.5 mg/l. Hazard quotient (HQ) and total hazard index (THI) were computed based on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) guidelines to evaluate the health threats for infants, children, teens, women and men. The THI ranged from 0.14 to 3.76, 0.11 to 3.01, 0.07 to 1.93, 0.06 to 1.64 and 0.06 to 1.50 for infants, children, teens, women and men, respectively. The percentages of risks in terms of THI were respectively 78, 75, 55, 33 and 23% for infants, children, teens, women and men respectively. The health risk assessment indicated that infants are most vulnerable to fluoride intake in this region. Therefore, proper treatment should be done by the government organizations to provide safe groundwater for the inhabitants.