Department of Chemistry, Adwa Teachers Education College, Adwa, Tigray, Ethiopia.
Department of Chemistry, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia; Department of Chemical Engineering, Process Engineering for Sustainable Systems (ProcESS), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium E-mail:
J Water Health. 2024 Sep;22(9):1650-1662. doi: 10.2166/wh.2024.115. Epub 2024 Aug 8.
The purpose of this study was to assess the levels of fluoride in drinking water and its health impact in Semema, Tigray, Ethiopia. Water samples were collected in February, March and April from three potential spring water sources, namely May Atkaru, May Sensela and May Liham. Each sample was analyzed for a variety of physicochemical parameters including fluoride using standard APHA procedures through double beam UV-Visible spectrophotometer, atomic absorption spectrophotometer and titrimetric methods. All the measured physicochemical parameters except hardness (345.78-368.35 mg/L) and alkalinity (231.3-354.6 mg/L) were recorded below the WHO permissible limit set for drinking water. The amount of fluoride in May Atkaru (4.00 mg/L) and May Sensela (3.89 mg/L) was significantly greater than the WHO permissible limit set for drinking water, 1.5 mg/L. Moreover, HQ > 1 from May Atkaru and May Sensela revealed the possibility of dental and skeletal fluorosis over extended exposure to fluoride irrespective of age and sex variations. This confirmed people in the area with mottled teeth are vulnerable to the excessive consumption of fluoride, which poses health risks. Therefore, it needs immediate interventions to minimize the debilitating effect of fluoride in drinking water by creating awareness among the community and policymakers to introduce low-cost defluoridation methods.
本研究旨在评估埃塞俄比亚提格雷 Semema 地区饮用水中的氟化物水平及其对健康的影响。水样于 2 月、3 月和 4 月分别从三个潜在的泉水水源（即 May Atkaru、May Sensela 和 May Liham）采集。每个样品均使用标准的 APHA 程序通过双光束紫外可见分光光度计、原子吸收分光光度计和滴定法分析了各种理化参数，包括氟化物。除硬度（345.78-368.35mg/L）和碱度（231.3-354.6mg/L）外，所有测量的理化参数均低于世界卫生组织规定的饮用水允许限值。在 May Atkaru（4.00mg/L）和 May Sensela（3.89mg/L）中的氟化物含量显著高于世界卫生组织规定的饮用水允许限值 1.5mg/L。此外，来自 May Atkaru 和 May Sensela 的 HQ>1 表明，无论年龄和性别如何，延长接触氟化物都可能导致氟斑牙和氟骨症。这证实了该地区有斑点牙齿的人容易受到过量氟化物的影响，从而带来健康风险。因此，需要采取紧急干预措施，通过提高社区和政策制定者的认识，引入低成本的除氟方法，以减轻饮用水中氟化物的致残影响。
