Background and Purpose: Soft drinks are commonly consumed globally. Due to high demand, regulatory protocols may be breached thereby leading contamination with heavy metals. In this study, we determined the content of five metals in some Nigerian soft estimated their potential health risks.
 Methods: Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was used determine concentrations magnesium, aluminum...

Drinking water is obtained in Kuwait by blending desalinated seawater with 5–10% brackish water. Chemical analysis of trihalomethanes (THMs) was performed on 624 water samples collected from private residences and government buildings from December 2003 to May 2005. The highest value recorded (91.01 g/L), exceeds the maximum contaminant level (MCL) set by the U.S. EPA. Significant variations in...

he current 50-μg/L maximum contaminant level (MCL) for arsenic in drinking water was first set by the US Public Health Service in 1942 and was adopted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in 1975.1 The standard was based primarily on toxic effects resulting from short-term or acute exposure to arsenic.2 Subsequent investigations have linked arsenic in drinking water with skin cance...

BACKGROUND Toxic metals including arsenic, cadmium, manganese, and lead are known human developmental toxicants that are able to cross the placental barrier from mother to fetus. In this population-based study, we assess the association between metal concentrations in private well water and birth defect prevalence in North Carolina. METHODS A semi-ecologic study was conducted including 20,151...

BACKGROUND Few studies of environmental justice examine inequities in drinking water contamination. Those studies that have done so usually analyze either disparities in exposure/harm or inequitable implementation of environmental policies. The US EPA's 2001 Revised Arsenic Rule, which tightened the drinking water standard for arsenic from 50 μg/L to 10 μg/L, offers an opportunity to analyze bo...

Numerous studies have described environmental exposure of humans to heavy metals in African populations. Little is known about the exposure to heavy metal toxins from processed or unprocessed foods consumed in Africa, and no data exists on the food concentrations of arsenic and chromium, which are potential carcinogens and systemic toxicants. This study determined the concentrations of arsenic ...

Previous studies have shown that the presence of nitrate in drinking water can cause several diseases especially in the infants, such as cancer and blue baby. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has since adopted the 50 mg/l standard as the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for nitrate for regulated public water systems. This study aimed to evaluate the concentration of nitrate in the drink...

Groundwater contamination by fluoride (F) can result from the natural dissolution of minerals from subterranean strata. These inorganic contaminant in drinking water is known to cause serious health problems when the maximum contaminant levels (MCL) exceed 1.5 mg/L. The aim of this study was to correlate the high fluoride content in the groundwater of the region to the geochemistry of the water...

There are several U.S. EPA approved methodologies for the determination of arsenic in ground water. Such technologies are lab-based, time intensive and can lead to a large capital cost for multi-sample analysis. In light of the number of sites found to contain arsenic at levels higher than the maximum contaminant level (MCL), on-site screening and monitoring systems are an attractive alternativ...

Arsenic (V) removal using cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) micelles and 5 kilo-Dalton (kDa) polyethersulfone (PES) membrane was studied in the presence of multiple co-ions. The concentrations of arsenic ([As]F = 0 105 μg/L) and co-ions ([CO3] = 0 – 4 mg/L, [PO4] = 0 – 0.3 mg/L, [SiO3] = 0 – 71 mg/L, and [SO4] = 0 – 400 mg/L) in simulated feed water were varied. Without the addition of CPC micelle...