Human Health Risk Assessment through Depiction of Major Ion Chemistry of Groundwater from Part of Balaghat District (MP), Central India

Abstract

The key interpretations on the study concerning the human health risk appraisal and hydrogeochemical environment of major ions (cations and anions) of the groundwater samples from the part of Balaghat District (MP) latitude 21°31’42”: 2143’11” N and longitude 79°50’ 30”: 80°11’30”E., Central India are presented here. The pH and EC values were found to grade between 7.3 to 8.6 and 50 to 5080 µS/cm, unraveling the alkaline nature of groundwater and numerous phases of processes in groundwater characterization. The ion exchange along with the solubilization processes during the rock-water interaction undoubtedly represents the geogenic as well as non-geogenic sources for the salinity in the groundwater of the study area. The Ca2+ is predominant over the other cations, wherein the abundance succession of cations is Ca2+ > Na+ > Mg2+ > K+ . The HCO3 - predominates over the other anions with the abundance succession as - HCO3 - > Cl- > NO3 - > SO4 2- > F- . The concentrations of the cations and the anions have been subjected to Aquachem4 software to get the Piper trillinear diagram for the groundwater samples of the study area and it has been found that the alkaline earths (Ca + Mg) exceed the alkalis (Na + K). The three major facies evaluated after the analysis from the study area are Mg-HCO3 (75%), Na-HCO3 (16%) and Ca-HCO3 (9%). The total health hazard quotient (THI) values due to NO3 - content range from 0.026 to 6972 mg/kg/day for the adult and from 0.034 to 1002.7 mg/kg/day for children. Similarly, the health hazard quotient (THI) values due to Fconcentration ranges from 0.01 to 0.19 mg/kg/day and from 0.02 to 0.52 mg/kg/day for adult and children respectively. Thus, the study points out that the children are more susceptible to the non-carcinogenic risk than to adults and may pose undesirable health effects.