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Health Risk of Polonium 210 Ingestion via Drinking Water: An Experience of Malaysia

The presence of toxic polonium-210 (Po-210) in the environment is due to the decay of primordial uranium-238. Meanwhile, several studies have reported elevated Po-210 radioactivity in the rivers around the world due to both natural and anthropogenic factors. However, the primary source of Po-210 in...

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Autores principales: Ahmed, Minhaz Farid, Alam, Lubna, Mohamed, Che Abd Rahim, Mokhtar, Mazlin Bin, Ta, Goh Choo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6210456/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30241360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102056
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author Ahmed, Minhaz Farid
Alam, Lubna
Mohamed, Che Abd Rahim
Mokhtar, Mazlin Bin
Ta, Goh Choo
author_facet Ahmed, Minhaz Farid
Alam, Lubna
Mohamed, Che Abd Rahim
Mokhtar, Mazlin Bin
Ta, Goh Choo
author_sort Ahmed, Minhaz Farid
collection PubMed
description The presence of toxic polonium-210 (Po-210) in the environment is due to the decay of primordial uranium-238. Meanwhile, several studies have reported elevated Po-210 radioactivity in the rivers around the world due to both natural and anthropogenic factors. However, the primary source of Po-210 in Langat River, Malaysia might be the natural weathering of granite rock along with mining, agriculture and industrial activities. Hence, this is the first study to determine the Po-210 activity in the drinking water supply chain in the Langat River Basin to simultaneously predict the human health risks of Po-210 ingestion. Therefore, water samples were collected in 2015–2016 from the four stages of the water supply chain to analyze by Alpha Spectrometry. Determined Po-210 activity, along with the influence of environmental parameters such as time-series rainfall, flood incidents and water flow data (2005–2015), was well within the maximum limit for drinking water quality standard proposed by the Ministry of Health Malaysia and World Health Organization. Moreover, the annual effective dose of Po-210 ingestion via drinking water supply chain indicates an acceptable carcinogenic risk for the populations in the Langat Basin at 95% confidence level; however, the estimated annual effective dose at the basin is higher than in many countries. Although several studies assume the carcinogenic risk of Po-210 ingestion to humans for a long time even at low activity, however, there is no significant causal study which links Po-210 ingestion via drinking water and cancer risk of the human. Since the conventional coagulation method is unable to remove Po-210 entirely from the treated water, introducing a two-layer water filtration system at the basin can be useful to achieve SDG target 6.1 of achieving safe drinking water supplies well before 2030, which might also be significant for other countries.
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spelling pubmed-62104562018-11-02 Health Risk of Polonium 210 Ingestion via Drinking Water: An Experience of Malaysia Ahmed, Minhaz Farid Alam, Lubna Mohamed, Che Abd Rahim Mokhtar, Mazlin Bin Ta, Goh Choo Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The presence of toxic polonium-210 (Po-210) in the environment is due to the decay of primordial uranium-238. Meanwhile, several studies have reported elevated Po-210 radioactivity in the rivers around the world due to both natural and anthropogenic factors. However, the primary source of Po-210 in Langat River, Malaysia might be the natural weathering of granite rock along with mining, agriculture and industrial activities. Hence, this is the first study to determine the Po-210 activity in the drinking water supply chain in the Langat River Basin to simultaneously predict the human health risks of Po-210 ingestion. Therefore, water samples were collected in 2015–2016 from the four stages of the water supply chain to analyze by Alpha Spectrometry. Determined Po-210 activity, along with the influence of environmental parameters such as time-series rainfall, flood incidents and water flow data (2005–2015), was well within the maximum limit for drinking water quality standard proposed by the Ministry of Health Malaysia and World Health Organization. Moreover, the annual effective dose of Po-210 ingestion via drinking water supply chain indicates an acceptable carcinogenic risk for the populations in the Langat Basin at 95% confidence level; however, the estimated annual effective dose at the basin is higher than in many countries. Although several studies assume the carcinogenic risk of Po-210 ingestion to humans for a long time even at low activity, however, there is no significant causal study which links Po-210 ingestion via drinking water and cancer risk of the human. Since the conventional coagulation method is unable to remove Po-210 entirely from the treated water, introducing a two-layer water filtration system at the basin can be useful to achieve SDG target 6.1 of achieving safe drinking water supplies well before 2030, which might also be significant for other countries. MDPI 2018-09-20 2018-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6210456/ /pubmed/30241360 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102056 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ahmed, Minhaz Farid
Alam, Lubna
Mohamed, Che Abd Rahim
Mokhtar, Mazlin Bin
Ta, Goh Choo
Health Risk of Polonium 210 Ingestion via Drinking Water: An Experience of Malaysia
title Health Risk of Polonium 210 Ingestion via Drinking Water: An Experience of Malaysia
title_full Health Risk of Polonium 210 Ingestion via Drinking Water: An Experience of Malaysia
title_fullStr Health Risk of Polonium 210 Ingestion via Drinking Water: An Experience of Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Health Risk of Polonium 210 Ingestion via Drinking Water: An Experience of Malaysia
title_short Health Risk of Polonium 210 Ingestion via Drinking Water: An Experience of Malaysia
title_sort health risk of polonium 210 ingestion via drinking water: an experience of malaysia
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6210456/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30241360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102056
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