Health risk assessment due to uranium contaminated drinking water sources in the tectonically active zone of Garhwal Himalaya India

Uranium is omnipresent in the earth's crust and the presence of its high concentration in the water poses a different type of health risk to humans. Keeping this in mind, water samples were collected from the different parts of the Bhagirathi valley (45 samples around MCT and 60 samples around UKI) region of the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, India. The analysis of the water samples was done using an LED Fluorimeter (LF – 2a) at NIT Jalandhar, Punjab. The range of the uranium concentrations in the collected water samples was found 0.01 to 3.48 ppb (with an AM of 0.31 ppb). The association between the pH, temperature, and TDS of the collected samples within the uranium were assessed in this study and their Pearson's r values vary from 0.10, 0.008, and 0.04 respectively. The calculated values of the ELCR, LADD, and HQ were found well within the safe limit as suggested by many agencies. The AED received by the different age groups was also found with the safe limit of 100 µSv y^-1 recommended by WHO and EU respectively. (author)