Cadmium concertation and health risk assessment of ground-water in district Khanewal (South Punjab) Pakistan

Abstract Contamination of cadmium (Cd) in several areas of Pakistan has been accounted which display severe health risks to the peoples through its various ways of the exposure. There exists relatively infrequent data about cadmium levels in the groundwater of the south Punjab, which is usually utilized for the drinking intention. This study was conducted to evaluate the cadmium concentration in the drinking water of Khanewal district. 196 drinking samples were taken from various areas (urban and rural). Several groundwater sources (tube well, hand pumps and electric pump) were selected at various depths (50 to 400 feet) of four tehsils (Khanewal, Kabirwala, Main channu, Jahanian) of Khanewal district. Collected samples were pacified to assessment of cadmium concentration and physiochemical features of the water such as pH, anions, cations, EC, bicarbonates and carbonates. It was observed that around 90% of water samples were unsafe for the drinking purpose, the main reason is various areas of Khanewal were noticed with cadmium levels greater than WHO (world health organization) allowable limit of cadmium (3µg/l) in the drinking-water. Cadmium caused health hazards was also assessed with regard to the average daily dose (ADD), hazard quotient (HQ) and carcinogenic risk (CR) for human who were depending on the cadmium-contained water for ingestion. It is noticed that peoples of district Khanewal are at the severe carcinogenic health risk. In this research emphasizes that essential monitoring and management steps are essential for humans in the study areas, in order to reduce the cadmium-caused health impacts and build effectual remediation approaches for cadmium-polluted drinking water.