Assessment of Health Risks Related to Contamination of Groundwater by Trace Metal Elements (Hg, Pb, Cd, As and Fe) in the Department of Zouan-Hounien (West Côte D’Ivoire)

Abstract

In the department of Zouan-Hounien, gold mining is booming. This activity, marked by the excavation of rocks and the use of chemicals such as mercury, is likely to contaminate the region's groundwater resources and expose populations to serious diseases. This study aims to assess the health risks associated with the consumption of this water by the population. To this end, 72 groundwater samples were taken in eight (08) villages of the department at the rate of forty-six (46) well water samples and twenty-six (26) borehole water samples. A total of twenty-twenty-three wells and thirteen boreholes were sampled during two campaigns. An atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) was used to determine the concentrations of metallic trace elements (MTEs), such as mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), Arsenic (As), and iron (Fe) in the different samples. The daily exposure doses for oral ingestion (CDIing) and skin contact (Expderm) were calculated. The non-carcinogenic (HQ) and carcinogenic risks (CR) were estimated. The results show that the mean concentrations of Fe, Pb, Hg, As and Cd are respectively 2233.48 > 3.10 > 0.60 > 1.18 > 0.08 µg•L −1 in the wells and 2427.94 > 4.08 > 1.27 > 1.76 > 0.08 µg•L −1 in boreholes. Evaluating the risks to human health reveals that the mean values of hazard quotient (HQ) and cancer risk (CR) for all the elements in the wells and boreholes are lower than 1 and 10 −4 respectively in children and adults for oral and dermal exposure. However, at the oral exposure level, 9 wells and 6 boreholes recorded HQ and CR above the defined critical limits. These values indicate that the occurrence of non-cancerous

Assessment and Health Risks of Glyphosate Residues and Traces Metals Elements in Groundwater Arround Abidjan Region, Côte d’Ivoire

“…This could be linked to the fact that our study sites are not full of sources emitting these two elements or to the detection limits of the method used. By comparing our results to those found by our peers in water from wells and boreholes in Ivory Coast, it appears that our results differ from those of Djadé et al [10] for Cd and Ahoussi et al [16] for Co. For zinc, all concentrations detected in borehole water are within WHO standards (500μg/L). Sulfur is present in all samples analyzed at very high concentrations.…”

“…As for Rasheed et al [22] and Zhang et al [23], they showed the impact of discharges from anthropogenic activities and soil erosion on the presence of certain metallic trace elements in well water. The concentrations of As observed in our study are much higher than those obtained in the groundwater of San-Pedro and Abidjan by Kouadio [6] and also those found in the waters of wells and boreholes in the mining area of Zouan-Hounien by Djadé et al [10]. A study conducted by Ahoussi et al [16] on the water tables of the city of Abidjan made it possible to detect high concentrations of Cr and Co higher than those found in this study and concentrations of Zn and Pb lower than those of our study.…”

“…For metallic trace elements, they have been detected at variable concentrations in surface and groundwater in Ivory Coast. Djadé et al [10] detected Pb (3.10 µg/L), Cd (0.08 µg/L) and As (1.18 µg/L) in well water and Pb (4.08 µg/L ), Cd (0.08 µg/L) and As (1.76 µg/L) in drilling waters in the Zouan-Hounien mining area. Kouadio's studies [6] made it possible to quantify As in the groundwater of San-Pedro and Abidjan at concentrations of 15 µg/L and 13.5 µg/L respectively.…”

Heavy Metal Analysis and Health Risk Assessment of Groundwater and Soil in and Around Peenya Industrial Area, Bengaluru

“…If risk estimates fall between 10−6 to 10−4, carcinogenic risk is deemed tolerable. Conversely, cancer risk levels over 10−4 are deemed unacceptable (Péhégninon et al, 2021).…”