Selenium in underground waters of Karelia

The presence of selenium in 370 underground sources of Karelian Republic was defined with the help of the ICP/ms method with different sensitivity limits. The concentration of selenium in groundwater of Karelia is low: in 75 % of the surveyed sources it is below 0,5 mg/l. Median selenium concentration is 0,3 mg/l. It was established that selenium concentration in the ground waters of Karelia does not exceed the permissible level for drinking water, and because of the low concentration they should not be regarded as a significant source of selenium for living organisms and humans.