Nitrate and trace elements in municipal and bottled water in Spain
- Espejo-Herrera, Nadia
- Kogevinas, Manolis
- Castaño-Vinyals, Gemma
- Aragonés, Nuria
- Boldo, Elena
- Ardanaz, Eva
- Azpiroz, Lourdes
- Ulibarrena, Enrique
- Tardón, Adonina
- Molina, Antonio J.
- López-Rojo, Concepción
- Jiménez-Moleón, José J.
- Capelo, Rocío
- Gómez-Acebo, Inés
- Ripoll, Mónica
- Villanueva, Cristina M.
DOIAbstract
AbstractObjectivesTo describe levels of nitrate and trace elements in drinking water from the study areas of a multicase-control study of cancer in Spain (MCC-Spain).MethodsA total of 227 tap water samples were randomly collected from 67 municipalities in 11 provinces and the nine most frequently consumed bottled water brands were sampled to measure levels of nitrate, arsenic, nickel, chromium, cadmium, lead, selenium and zinc.ResultsThe median nitrate level was 4.2mg/l (range<1-29.0), with similar levels in rural and urban municipalities (p=0.86). Trace elements were unquantifiable in 94% of tap water samples. Differences between areas were significant for nitrate (p<0.001) and arsenic (p=0.03). Only nitrate was quantifiable in bottled wat...