The Monitoring and Health Risk Assessment of Nitrate in Drinking Water in the Rural and Urban Areas of Tabriz, Iran

The overall purpose of this study was to estimate the health risk of nitrate (NO3-) concentration in the drinking water of Tabriz County.

This research is a descriptive cross-sectional study that was performed on Tabriz drinking water in 2016-2017. The concentration of NO3- in one hundred - ninety drinking water samples was determined in the water and wastewater laboratory of the provincial health center using spectrophotometry.

The results showed that the average levels of NO3- (as nitrate ion) in drinking water of urban and rural districts were 14.6 ± 12.8 and 13.1 ± 12.8 mg/L, respectively, which are lower than the national standard of Iran and WHO guidelines. The average hazard quotient (HQ) for four age groups of infants, children, teenagers, and adults was less than one in both urban and rural zones. However, HQ values for the children were more than 1 in 15.20% of urban and 10.7% of rural samples.

The non-carcinogenic risk of NO3- in drinking water does not threaten the exposed population, but the children presumably are at risk of NO3-. Hence, the continuous control of the concentration of NO3- was recommended to prevent its possible risk for water consumers, especially children.