engleski

Monitoring the content of trace elements in drinking waters from Posavina and Podravina

Drinking water of good quality is a significant source of essential elements. Trace elements and heavy metals in drinking water come from natural and anthropogenic sources. It is well known that their elevated concentrations can cause serious health complications and diseases. According to WHO, about 80% of diseases in the world are due to poor quality drinking water. Because of that, the objective of this study was to evaluate trace and heavy metals content of drinking waters from Posavina and Podravina. Water samples from Brčko, Županja, Čepin and Osijek were collected during three months (March – May) 2004 in clean polyethylene bottles. The content of Fe and Mn in the investigated drinking waters was analyzed by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS), while the concentrations of Zn, Cu, Ni, Se, Al, Cd, Cr, As, Pb and Si were determined by graphite furnace AAS. The obtained results demonstrate the concentration of iron, manganese and arsenic in the analyzed samples in the range from 83.65 – 768.10 µg/L, 10.84 – 78.20 µg/L and 14.13 – 120.07 µg/L, respectively. The highest concentrations of these elements were found in the samples from Čepin. The amount of the essential elements, copper and zinc, was generally low in the investigated drinking waters and varied from 6.90 to 28.65 µg/L for Cu and from 0.18 to 6.05 µg/L for Zn. The highest values of both elements were measured in samples from Osijek. Furthermore, the content of aluminum, silicon, selenium, lead, nickel and chromium found in the studied waters ranged between (in μg/L) 35.68 – 69.89, 9.18 – 15.03, 2.65 – 8.40, 2.00 – 6.87, 0.78 – 3.25 and 0.21 – 0.59, respectively. Cadmium concentration was found to be below the detection limit of the method in all analyzed drinking waters. To sum up, the obtained data provide evidence that the content of metals in the investigated drinking waters was well below permissible limits proposed by WHO guidelines, except for the concentrations of iron, manganese and arsenic in samples collected in Čepin. It is suggested that consumers from Čepin should chose to drink bottled water with an optimal mineral content to prevent adverse health effects.

trace elements; drinking water

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