title: Arsenic and other elements in drinking water and dietary components from the middle Gangetic plain of Bihar, India: Health risk index.
abstract: This study investigates the level of contamination and health risk assessment for arsenic (As) and other elements in drinking water, vegetables and other food components in two blocks (Mohiuddinagar and Mohanpur) from the Samastipur district, Bihar, India. Groundwater (80%) samples exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline value (10μg/L) of As while Mn exceeded the previous WHO limit of 400μg/L in 28% samples. The estimated daily intake of As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn from drinking water and food components were 169, 19, 26, 882, 4645, 14582, 474, 1449 and 12,955μg, respectively (estimated exposure 3.70, 0.41, 0.57, 19.61, 103.22, 324.05, 10.53, 32.21 and 287.90μg per kg bw, respectively). Twelve of 15 cooked rice contained high As concentration compared to uncooked rice. Water contributes (67%) considerable As to daily exposure followed by rice and vegetables. Whereas food is the major contributor of other elements to the dietary exposure. Correlation and principal component analysis (PCA) indicated natural source for As but for other elements, presence of diffused anthropogenic activities were responsible. The chronic daily intake (CDI) and health risk index (HRI) were also estimated from the generated data. The HRI were >1 for As in drinking water, vegetables and rice, for Mn in drinking water, vegetables, rice and wheat, for Pb in rice and wheat indicated the potential health risk to the local population. An assessment of As and other elements of other food components should be conducted to understand the actual health hazards caused by ingestion of food in people residing in the middle Gangetic plain.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation (CERAR), University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia; School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067, India.
authors.forename: Manoj
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation (CERAR), University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC-CARE), P O Box 486, Salisbury South, SA 5106, Australia.
authors.forename: Mohammad Mahmudur
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067, India.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Ramanathan
authors.affiliation: Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation (CERAR), University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC-CARE), P O Box 486, Salisbury South, SA 5106, Australia; Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER), Faculty of Science and Information Technology, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia. Electronic address: ravi.naidu@crccare.com.
authors.forename: Ravi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Naidu
mesh_terms: D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis*; D004032:Diet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D060766:Drinking Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D060587:Groundwater / Q000737:chemistry; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D014675:Vegetables / Q000737:chemistry; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water; D015386:Hazardous Substances; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D001151:Arsenic
keywords: Arsenic; Dietary components; Groundwater; Health risk index; Middle Gangetic plain; Total daily intake