Quantification of essential elements, their daily intake and health risk via drinking water collected from Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Water is a key component for all living beings on the earth and comprises about 70% of the earth. Being an essential component and universal solvent, water contains several light and trace metals. The present study was conducted to evaluate drinking water, collected from different sources, for essential elements including iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), potassium (K), phosphorous (P) and zinc (Zn). The results indicated that light metal concentrations showed substantial variation among different sampling sources. Similarly other essential elements were also greatly changed among the different sources. However, the highest light metal concentration was reported for the samples collected from hand pumps. The average daily dose (ADD) and hazard quotient (HQ) assessment showed that the ADD and HQ values were higher for children than adults; however, all the values of HQ were less than one which could not be caused any health problem in the residents of the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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