Assessment of fluoride contamination in groundwaterand its impact on human health

Abstract

Fluoride (F-) pollution of ground water is as incredibly harmful for both people and plants. Fluoride concentration of at least 0.6 mg/l is required for human consumption as it will help to have stronger teeth and bones. Fluride toxicity is a major concerning more than 25 countries all over the world. Present research work was directed to assess the physical and compound properties of groundwater. Water samples were collected from rural areas of Meerut city. Different physico-chemical boundaries like pH, Salinity, Turbidity, Total hardness (TH), Electrical conductivity(EC), Total dissolved solids (TDS) and fluoride were observed in order to find out the pollution level of water samples. In the present investigation, a wide range of variations was recorded. Water samples of different sites showed pH 7.69 to 7.96, EC 0.83 to 0.50 ms, TDS 310 to 540 mg/l, salinity 00.5 to 00.2 ppt, turbidity 1.14 to 0.15 NTU, Fluoride 1.132 to 1.532 mg/l. It was seen that 100% of groundwater areas have advancement of fluoride concentrations above 1 mg/l; consequently this groundwater is unsuitable for drinking and irrigation purposes.