Abstract
Background and Objectives: Some water quality parameters such as hardness are considered based on the consumers’ satisfaction. However, presence of some chemicals such as fluoride in concentrations more than standard levels could threat health of the consumers in long term. The present study aimed at providing the quality feature of drinking waters of East Azerbaijan province, in particular the fluoride.
Materials and Methods: During the study, results of 668 analyses of urban and rural water sources in 19 towns available at Province Health Center were reviewed. Thereafter, fluoride concentration, hardness, pH, alkalinity and electric conductance (totally 3340 parameters) were extracted and after statistical analysis were compared with the standards. In the case of villages with high level of fluoride, re-sampling and analysis was conducted.
Results: The electric conductance of the drinking waters ranged from 104 to 4660 µs/cm with the mean of 740±570 µs/cm. The value of hardness ranged from 40 to 1434 mg/L as CaCO3 with the mean of 228±100 mg/L. In 91.3% of the drinking water sources, fluoride content was ≤0.5 mg/L. In 22 drinking water sources, fluoride content was measured >1mg/L leading to dental fluorosis.
Conclusion: Consumption of water with high content of minerals and hardness should be limited if possible. Moreover, for water sources with fluoride content of >1mg/L, new water source should be provided due to probable dental fluorosis.