Overview
Mawari et al. measured concentrations of fluoride, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, nickel, copper, zinc, manganese, and chromium in ground and surface water across seven industrial area locations in Maharashtra, India, by ICP-MS. Urinary biomarkers were also collected: mean urinary mercury was 4.91 ± 0.280 µg/L and mean urinary arsenic was 42.04 ± 2.635 µg/L among the sampled population. The paper situates these levels in relation to WHO and Indian drinking-water standards and provides a multi-metal exposure profile for an industrial region with both groundwater and surface-water sources.
Key numbers
- Urinary Hg (mean ± SEM): 4.91 ± 0.280 µg/L
- Urinary As (mean ± SEM): 42.04 ± 2.635 µg/L
- Sampling locations: n = 7 industrial area sites in Maharashtra
- Analytical method: ICP-MS for water samples
- Metals measured: F, As, Cd, Hg, Pb, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mn, Cr
- Water and urinary data presented; exact water concentration values by metal in source tables
- tAs reported for water (inorganic vs organic speciation not separated); tHg for water and urine
Methods (brief)
Cross-sectional study. Ground and surface water samples from seven industrial locations in Maharashtra. ICP-MS for multi-metal quantification in water. Urinary biomarker collection from residents/workers in sampled areas. Metals compared to WHO and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) drinking-water guidelines. No food matrix sampling; exposure route is drinking water and likely occupational/environmental inhalation.
Implications
Certification: This paper documents a drinking-water exposure route for multiple HMT&C-relevant metals. Not directly applicable to food product certification thresholds but informs exposure context for populations using locally contaminated water in food preparation. iAs vs tAs speciation not separated.
Courses: Provides a multi-metal co-exposure profile for an industrial region, supporting teaching on background exposure and biomarker interpretation.
App: Drinking-water Pb, Cd, As, and Hg data from this paper apply to water-exposure pathways rather than food-ingredient concentration profiles; the app’s food-ingredient risk model should not use these water concentrations as ingredient contamination values.
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Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| e317189 | 2026-08-11 | correction | 6 sections added; narrative text revised |