Health risk assessment of uranium in drinking water in Hyderabad

Main source of drinking water supply in the twin city of Hyderabad and Secunderabad are the river dam and rain water collection dams, Uranium in different drinking water samples from source dams and user points in twin cities are analyzed. Municipal supply water samples are also analyzed with regular periodicity throughout the year. The geometric mean (GM) uranium concentration of last ten years is found to be 0.69 ppb with geometric standard deviation of 2.58. The GM of uranium concentration in drinking water source dams water is 0.91 ppb. For drinking water samples at user point the GM of uranium concentration is 0.49 ppb. Lifetime average daily dose of uranium in drinking water was observed to be 0.03 μg.kg-1day-1 compared to the Reference Dose of 0.6 μg.kg-1day-1. It is concluded that health risk is minimal due to exposure to uranium in drinking water. However, the concentration of uranium in drinking water must be monitored regularly. (author)