Search Results (2)

Effective management of urban solid waste in the Metropolitan Region of Belém, State of Pará, Brazil is essential for conserving ecosystems and public health in eight cities, emphasizing the municipality of Marituba. Considering the vulnerability of underground water resources in Marituba to pollution due to the possible impact of leachate percolation from the landfill, this study evaluates the quality of groundwater captured in tubular wells from different adjacent locations potentially used for human consumption. For this purpose, the systematic methodologies of the groundwater quality index and human health risk assessment analysis: non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk to human health were used based on chronic daily intake of heavy metals by consumption and dermal adsorption of groundwater, measured through risk quotients, risk index, and incremental lifetime cancer risk. To evaluate the interrelationships of pollutants, analysis of variance, hierarchical cluster analysis, and principal component analysis were used based on the spatio-temporal quantification of pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, As, Al, Ba, Co, Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, U, and Zn. Residents of the study area are not at potential risk, as the results demonstrate that groundwater is within the potability standards of Brazilian legislation, except for aluminum concentrations, which ranged from 53.12 to 378.01 μg L⁻¹ and 3.82 to 339.5 μg L⁻¹ in the dry and rainy seasons, respectively, exceeding the established limit of 200.0 μg L⁻¹. The quality index for groundwater and the heavy metal pollution index demonstrated that groundwater has good drinking quality with low metal contamination. The risk was considered low at all sampling sites in the non-carcinogenic risk assessment. Principal component analysis indicated that the sources of metal pollution are natural origins and anthropogeny. In this sense, they become worried because aluminum is a recognized neurotoxicant that can interfere with the central nervous system’s critical physiological and biochemical processes. Furthermore, despite complying with potability standards, trace concentrations of highly toxic metals such as As, Pb, Cd, and Ni may indicate initial contamination by landfill leachate. Full article

Groundwater is present in its purest form beneath the earth’s surface. However, metal contamination is potentially a problem faced by many countries. For this reason, the present study aims to make an assessment of the risks associated with groundwater consumption around the Marituba landfill in an Amazon region. The present study was characterized as transversal with the use of primary data. The sampling occurred in a stratified random way, performed in two radii of action being the 1st radius of 2.5 km away from the landfill and the 2nd radius of 3.5 km away from the landfill to the neighborhoods. A total of 184 points were collected. In all communities the average daily dose (ADD) was higher than the reference oral dose (Rfd), for the metals As, Pb and Mn the risk quotient (HQ) was greater than 1 (one) in all neighborhoods, the concentration of Mn in the least exposed neighborhood was greater than 10 µg.L⁻¹, even at a distance of 3.5 km from the landfill. The average concentrations for As and Pb did not exceed the recommended, however, they were more significant for the Beira Rio neighborhood, respectively 1.47 µg.L⁻¹ and 1.9 µg.L⁻¹. And the average concentration for Cu was more significant for the Uriboca neighborhood 18.20 µg.L⁻¹, but within the recommended. The average of the general concentration of Heavy Metals Pollution Index (HPI) of the water consumed was 80.03, indicating that the water consumed by the population is contaminated by metals. Full article