Determination and health risk assessment of heavy metals in drinking water of Tunceli, Turkey

Tunceli, Turkey is one of the small cities in the Eastern Anatolian Region with substantial natural, cultural and historical heritage that is suitable to be a slow city. Water sources are abundant in the area due to rain and heavy snowfall in the mountains, which seeps into the ground or flows into the rivers. Therefore monitoring and conservation of city’s drinking water quality is one of the main issues in the city. The present study was conducted to investigate several heavy metals and cyanide, arsenic, and selenium concentrations of drinking water samples taken from 100 different locations in the city and towns of Tunceli, Turkey during the years 2011 and 2012. In three locations, high levels of copper was found with a range of 2.1–11.5 mg/L, and high levels of arsenic was detected in five locations with a range of 10.5–78.0 μg/L, exceeding the action levels for copper and arsenic. For health risk assessment, the average daily dose and hazard quotient (HQ) were calculated. The region mean values of HQ were found above 1 for arsenic in the samples collected from Mazgirt, while HQ values were below 1 in the rest of the samples