Estimation of health risk associated with consumption of groundwater of Apscheronia propinqua at a Prielton region

In modern conditions, health risk assessment activities have become the leading direction in the analysis of potential threats to the health of the population living on the territory of a certain hydrogeochemical province. Based on the analysis of the reporting documentation of state reports in the field of consumer protection and human well-being, as well as ecology and natural resources of the Volgograd region, a priority list of pollutants was selected, due to the chemical nature of the aquifers of the Volgograd Trans-Volga region. The health risk assessment was carried out on the basis of 19 samples taken from non-centralized water supply sources in the Elton rural settlement using the methodology presented in P 2.1.10.1920-04. In this study, for the first time for groundwater in the Volgograd region, a risk-based approach was applied to assess the effect of dissolved toxicants on the health status of the population. The greatest contribution to the formation of a non-carcinogenic risk to the health of adults and children is made by oral exposure to sodium and nitrates. The cardiovascular system is the main critical system that is jointly affected by these toxicants. The total risk of non-carcinogenic hazard (HI) was HI = 0.5262 for adults and 1.2366 for children (taking into account standard exposure factors). The excess of the maximum permissible concentrations of the most significant in the formation of an unfavorable sanitary and ecological situation is primarily due to the geochemical nature of sodium-chloride-sulfate underground waters in the southeast of the Volgograd region, as well as irrational agriculture and the lack of zones of sanitary protection of water sources. The identified risks should be taken into account when exploring new groundwater resources and organizing water supply systems on the territory of the Elton rural settlement. The data obtained are planned to be used in the development of recommendations for the procedure for organizing water treatment in remote arid regions of the Volgograd region in the context of determining priority treatment facilities for sources of non-centralized water supply. Prospects for further research are related to the determination of carcinogenic risks formed by natural heavy metals and agricultural toxins associated with irrational agriculture.