Quantitative assessment of human health risk posed with chromium in waste, ground, and surface water in an industrial hub of Pakistan

Abstract

Human health safety is, commonly by far, one of the most important targets for health science researchers. The present study was conducted to assess the human health risks posed by oral and dermal exposures to Cr(VI) in various water resources (ground water, surface water, and waste water) in an industrial hub of Pakistan. The risk evaluation of waste, ground, and surface water was estimated by applying a mathematical model following Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) guidelines. The maximum hazard quotient HQCr(VI)/non-cancer risks in WW (waste water) for oral exposure were 0.034 and 0.0305 in male and female, respectively, while for dermal exposure, were 6.6 × 10−4 and 7.2 × 10−4 for male and female, respectively. However, overall hazard index HICr(VI) in all types of water was lesser than “1” in an industrial hub. The cancer risk (CRoral) in WW was reported as “very high” for both male (4.43 × 10−3) and female (3.39 × 10−3). In case of GW (ground water), CRoral for both male and female were categorized as “high” with the values of 2.41 × 10−4 and 2.13 × 10−4, respectively. For both the GW and WW in male and female, CRoral and CRdermal were found under “medium” cancer risk with the values of 9.78 × 10−5, 8.66 × 10−5 and 8.58 × 10−5, 9.35 × 10−5, respectively. Extremely high and high CRoral levels for WW and SW (surface water) clearly indicate the presence of Cr(VI) arising from local industries, busy commercial centers, and heavy traffic load in the last few decades in studied area. The CRdermal was classified under “low” category of cancer risk with the values of 1.89 × 10−6 in male and 2.06 × 10−6 in female in GW, while for SW, CRdermal values were 4.67 × 10−6 in male and 5.09 × 10−6 in female population. Based on the results, it is recommended that utmost care should be taken before using water resources from sampling regions since these could pose serious threats to human health. Government should provide alternative measures or targeted pollution control strategies to provide clean water in threatened areas.