Health risk assessment of heavy metals exposure (lead, cadmium, and copper) through drinking water consumption in Kerman city, Iran

This investigation has been conducted to evaluate the concentrations of heavy metals, including lead, cadmium, and copper in the drinking water in Kerman city, Iran. In this descriptive cross-sectional research, there have been 160 samples of tap water and 64 samples of bottled water brands collected to achieve comparable results. The atomic absorption spectrophotometer has been used to measure the concentrations of lead, cadmium and copper and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) indexes have been used to evaluate the human health risk. The results showed that the mean concentrations of lead metal in tap water have been higher than the recommended quantity based on the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) and USEPA. The mean concentrations of cadmium and copper in urban tap water have been in the acceptable ranges defined by Iranian National Standards, WHO and USEPA. Likewise, the target heavy metals concentrations in the bottled water have been conformed to these standard limits. Although there is no potential risk of carcinogenic detrimental health effect in children and adult groups, the children group consuming the drinking water are at the risk of non-carcinogenic adverse health effect. It is recommended that the heavy metals concentrations in drinking water are periodically monitored to minimize the environmental pollutions and health risks in consumers.