Study of Arsenic Presence in Drinking Water Sources: A Case Study

Conducted studies about arsenic have shown that consumption of water contaminated with arsenic can causes different adverse health effects in consumers. World Health Organization (WHO) has enacted 10µg/L arsenic in drinking water as a guideline value. Regarding some reports about arsenic presence in a village of Hashtrood county and related health effects and also considering this fact that determination of arsenic as a poisoning chemical is not included in routine monitoring of water by responsible organizations, in present study all of drinking water sources in Hashtrood county in East Azerbaijan province were studied for arsenic presence. Water supply and its sanitation situation were studied in all of cities and residential villages (200 villages) by field visiting. Arsenic content of water samples were determined using Ez arsenic test kit, a product of Hach Company. For assurance of the kit results, 20 water samples with different concentration of arsenic were analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) method and then achieved results was compared together. Arsenic was present in drinking water of 50 villages that in 9 villages its level was higher than Iranian standard (50µg/L). During the study totally 11087 persons (21.96% of rural areas population) in Hashtrood county were exposed to different levels of arsenic via drinking water. Correlation between kit and ICP results was significant (R2 = 0.9715) Studied region in present study is a polluted area to arsenic by geogenic sources. It is necessary to replace water source of villages with higher level than national standard with safe drinking water. Annually measurement of arsenic in drinking water of all villages spatially polluted villages should be considered by responsible organization e.g. Health Network and Rural Water and Wastewater Company. Used kit in our study is recommendable for this purpose.