HR: 10:25h
AN: H42A-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Water, Water Everywhere but is it Safe to Drink? Some Detrimental Health Effects Associated with Consumption of Groundwater Enriched in Naturally-Occurring Contaminants
AU: * Fuge, R
EM: rrf@aber.ac.uk
AF: University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth, SY23 3DB, United Kingdom
AB: Drinking water represents a major pathway of trace elements into the human body. As such, groundwaters, the chemistry of which reflect water/rock interaction, can be a source of trace elements which will have a marked health effect on humans consuming them. Health problems associated with the consumption of groundwater enriched in various elements and compounds have been recorded for many years. For example, high-arsenic groundwaters used for public water supply were first associated with harmful health effects as early as 1917 in Córdoba Province in Argentina, where the local population suffered from skin disorders. Subsequently, in the 1960s consumption of high-arsenic groundwaters was identified as a factor in the aetiology of "black foot disease", an endemic vascular disease, in Taiwan. However, it is problems associated with the very high-arsenic groundwaters of the highly populous Ganges delta area of Bangladesh and West Bengal that has more recently highlighted the health problem of consuming high-arsenic waters. The most obvious problems of excess arsenic consumption through drinking water are arsenical skin lesions, the severity of which being generally correlated with arsenic content of the water. A high incidence of cancers of the skin, bladder and other organs has been recorded in the high-arsenic drinking water areas of the world. A high incidence of vascular disease, found in the arsenic-rich area of Taiwan, has also been shown to occur in Bangladesh. In addition, it has been suggested that high arsenic in drinking water results in increased incidence of diabetes mellitus. Fluorine is another element long recognised as having a major effect on the well-being of humans. Consumption of high-fluorine waters were first identified as having a detrimental effect on teeth in the 1920s and 30s. It was subsequently shown that where fluorine is present in drinking waters at concentrations of around 0.5 to 1 mg/L it can have beneficial effects on humans, resulting in healthy teeth and bones. However, several areas of the world where potable waters derive from the ground, very high concentrations of fluorine, generally in excess of 4 mg/L have resulted in dental fluorosis and, at very high concentrations, crippling skeletal fluorosis. The detrimental effects of consuming elevated amounts of fluorine-rich drinking water are exacerbated by a poor, low-protein diet. Radioactive elements such as radon and uranium can be transported in groundwater. Domestic water supplies enriched in radon can in some areas represent a major pathway into humans, being released during showering etc, it can be inhaled and as such contributes to the incidence of lung cancer. In addition to the potential health problems of its radioactivity, uranium has been shown to be a nephrotoxin. High-uranium groundwaters consumed by humans over the short term can result in kidney damage.
DE: 1831 Groundwater quality
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly