An investigation of fluoride levels in Alagilat City, Libya

Transcription

1 INT J CURR SCI 2016, 19(1): E 1-5 RESEARCH ARTICLE ISSN An investigation of fluoride levels in Alagilat City, Libya Fathi M Elmabrok Department of the Environment and Pollution, Higher Institute of Water Affairs, Alagilat City, Libya Corresponding author: fathi96@yahoo.com Abstract Fluoride plays a significant role in the human body if it presents between 0.6 and 1.5 ppm in drinking water but if the concentration is higher than 1.5 ppm. It causes dental and skeletal fluorosis. The aim of this study was to present the levels of fluoride in the ground water. Ground water samples were collected and analyzed in twenty six villages of Alagilat city, Libya. Sixty five samples were collected in polyethylene plastic bottles and analyzed for fluoride. The results showed that the fluoride concentration ranges between 0.8 and 3.2 mg L -1 with an average of 2.04 mgl -1. The results also showed that 86.15% of the sampling sites showing high levels of fluoride. The level is beyond the recommended value set by the world health organization and the Libyan government. Keywords: drinking water; fluoride; Libya; fluorosis Received: 26 th August 2015; Revised: 16 th September; Accepted: 29 th November; IJCS New Liberty Group 2016 Introduction Water is a vital element for the life and is essential for the health. Libya is situated in the dry zone, and the ground water is considered the major source of drinking water around the country. This source of water has become deteriorated due to different sources of pollution. However, clean drinking water became very scarce and polluted worldwide. Fluoride is considered one of the most dominant elements in the environment. It is found naturally in ground water of different parts of the world. Fluoride is an electronegative element and is never found in the nature in the elemental form. It combines with several elements to form other fluorides. The sources of fluoride in ground water are igneous and sedimentary rocks. Fluorospar, cryolite and fluoroapatite are considered the most common fluoride bearing minerals. Fluorite is the main bearer of fluoride and is found in granite and pegmatite (Deshmukh et al., 1995; Kudesia, 2003; Farooqi et al., 2007; Rao, 2009). Anthropogenic activities such as burning of coal, manufacturing of aluminum, steel and phosphate fertilizers contain significant a mounts of fluoride (Anderson et al., 1991; Deshmukh et al., 1995; Tailor and Chandel, 2010). Fluoride was first detected in ground water in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh India (Short et al., 1937). Fluoride plays an important role in the growth of teeth and reduces dental caries when it presents in optimum levels, high or low concentrations of fluoride in drinking water have caused dental and skeletal fluorosis (Jenkins, 1978; Abdulrahmani, 1996). Around 96% of the fluoride is found in bones and teeth. Fluoride also plays an important role in the mineralization of the bones and

2 formation of the dental enamel (Ceopalan, 2003). Table 1. Concentration of fluoride found in deferent parts of the world fluoride in drinking water, according to (WHO, 2004) guidelines is up to 1.5 ppm. Higher levels of fluoride in the ground water than the recommended is a major problem worldwide. Fluoride levels in drinking water in Concentration (mg L -1 ) Minimum Maximum References Kausik Kumar Das et al. (2012) Shashank Shekhar et al. (2012) Rizwan Reza and Gurdeep Singh (2013) Shobana R and Soruba R (2012) Jitumoni B and Deepjyoti S (2011) Nagaraju Arveti et al. (2011) Maimuna Waziri et al. (2012) Battaleb et al. (2010) Current Study different parts of the world are illustrated in table 1. It is assumed that ground water in the western north of Libya contains risky levels of fluoride (UNESCO, September 2000). The aim of this study is to investigate the fluoride concentrations in the ground water in this area. Fluoride in drinking water has become one of the most health problems around the world, as 200 million people from different countries are subject to dental and skeletal fluorosis. Many countries such as China, India, Sri lanka, Mexico Argentina, and many countires in Africa have very high rates of dental and skeletal fluorosis caused by the high levels of fluoride in drinking water (Edmunds and Smedley, 2005; Chabdrajith et al., 2007). Fluorosis is widespread in many developed and developing countries such as India, China, United States and Australia (Grimaldo et al., 1995). In 1986, fluorosis was reported in 13 of the Indian states, in 1992 it was 15, in 2002 it became 17 and now the effected states exceed to 19, indicating that fluorosis is the most serious problem around the country. Currently, about 62 million people of which 6 million children are suffering from the disease because of consuming drinking water with high fluoride content (Raju and Das, 2009). Ground water contains high levels of fluoride in many countries of the world, including large parts of Africa, China, the Middle and the Far East and Asia (Apambire et al., 1997). The recommended limit of Materials and Methods The study area is situated between the latitude 32 o 45` 25`` N and longitude 12 o 22` 34`` E in the city of Alagilate. It is around 85 km from Tripoli and about 4 meters above the sea level (Fig. 1). The maximum temperature is about 45 o C and minimum 20 o C with an average annual rainfall of 150 mm. The dominant soils are entisols and aridisols. Furthermore, the level of fluoride in the ground water of this area has not been measured before. Therefore, the present investigation is carried out. A total of 65 ground water samples were collected in February 2013 from 26 villages of Alagilate city, Libya. The samples were collected from public wells, private wells, water sources in the health centers, and schools. First, the water was left to run for few minutes from the wells to pump out the standing water before taking the final samples. The samples were

3 Fluoride (mg/l) Fathi, 2016 collected in pre cleaned sterilized polyethylene plastic bottles of 1 L capacity then the samples were placed in clean containers and immediately put in ice boxes. The ice boxes were shipped to Siracusa, Italy where the fluoride was analyzed by Ion chromatography (IC) in the laboratories of Eco-control Sud Company. The concentration of fluoride was determined in terms of mgl -1. The standard permissible value of fluoride according to APHA (1989), WHO (2004), EU and Libyan standard are given in table 2. Fig. 2. Concentration of fluoride in the water samples (dotted line is the permissible limit) Sample no Results and Discussion The results obtained of 65 samples collected from twenty six villages are shown in figure 2. The results showed that the concentration of fluoride was found between 0.8 and 3.2 mg L -1 with an average of 2.04 mg L -1. The results given in the table revealed this alarming level of fluoride in study area. The results also revealed that 13.85% of the taken samples were found within the recommended value set by world health organization while 86.15% had fluoride higher than the permissible value (1.5 mg L -1 ). Fluorosis phenomenon was seen in the study area during samples collection and that reflects the high concentration of the fluoride in the ground water in the study area. Figure 3 shows some photo copies of the people who are suffering of the disease. Conclusion From the fluoride concentrations which were found in ground water samples of the study area it can be concluded that the fluoride in the most samples were found higher than the permissible limit (1.5 mg/l) and the fluorosis was dominant. However, more studies should be carried out in different parts of the country to investigate the fluoride content. The people are recommended not to use the water sample for drinking and cooking purposes. Alternative, people should use small techniques to minimize the levels of fluoride in the drinking water samples supplied to the City. The people have to be educated environmental awareness camps on health and water quality. Acknowledgement The author sincerely thanks the Libyan Authority for Research, Science and Technology for their sponsorship. References Abdulrahmani A (1996). Fluoride content in drinking water supplies of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 48: Anderson MA, Zelazny LWM, Bertsch PM (1991). Fluoro-complexes on model and soil exchangers. Crop Science Society of America Journal 55: Apambire WB, Boyle DR, Michel FA (1997). Geochemistry, genesis, and health implications of fluoiferous ground water in the upper regions of Ghana. Environmental Geology 33:

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