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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Ecological and Health Risk Assessment
of Cadmium Contamination in Groundwater
Samples Collected from the Arid
Climatic Region
1
School of Agriculture, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan 650504, China
2
Department of Engineering and Engineering Technology, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Denver, 80217, USA
3
School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
4
School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
5
Department of Environmental Science, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Sheringal 18000, Pakistan
6
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410011, China
7
Water Studies and Research Complex. National Water Research Center, Cairo 11511, Egypt
8
Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University,
Bahawalpur 63100, Punjab, Pakistan
9
Department of Life Sciences, Western Caspian University, Baku, Azerbaijan
10
School of Geography, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, 650500, China
11
Department of Agricultural Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology,
Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan
12
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur,
Bahawalpur 63100, Punjab, Pakistan
13
Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
14
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
15
Institute of Agro-Industry and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur,
Bahawalpur 63100, Punjab, Pakistan
Submission date: 2023-09-13
Final revision date: 2024-03-04
Acceptance date: 2024-04-30
Online publication date: 2024-09-06
Publication date: 2025-01-28
Corresponding author
Allah Ditta
Department of Environmental Sciences, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University Sheringal, Dir (U), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 18000, Pakistan, Pakistan
Department of Environmental Sciences, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University Sheringal, Dir (U), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 18000, Pakistan, Pakistan
Rashid Iqbal
Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University, Bahawalpur 63100, Punjab, Pakistan
Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University, Bahawalpur 63100, Punjab, Pakistan
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(3):2793-2803
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Cadmium (Cd) contamination in various regions of Pakistan has been reported which poses severe
threats to the health of local communities through various exposure routes. There is relatively scarce data and information regarding Cd contamination status in the groundwater of Punjab, Pakistan,
which is typically used for drinking purposes. The present research work was carried out to assess the
concentration of Cd in the drinking water samples collected from the Khanewal district. Drinking water
samples (196) were collected from different sources of groundwater (hand and electric pumps, tube
wells) at different depths (50-400 feet) in rural and urban areas of four tehsils (Jahanian, Kabirwala,
Khanewal, and Mian Channu) of district Khanewal. The collected water samples were evaluated for Cd
level and physico-chemical properties such as electrical conductivity, pH, carbonates, cations, anions,
and bicarbonates. It was noticed that 90% of collected samples of water were unsafe for drinking
purposes as these contained higher levels of Cd compared to the World Health Organization (WHO)
permissible limit of Cd (3.0 × 10-3 mg L-1) in drinking water. Cd-induced health risks were also calculated
concerning the hazard quotient (HQ), the average daily dose (ADD), and carcinogenic risk (CR)
for humans who were reliant on the Cd-mixed water for consumption. Overall, the study found that
people in the Khanewal district were at a severe/serious carcinogenic health risk due to Cd contamination
in drinking water. This study highlights that management and monitoring steps are necessary for
people in study regions, to decrease Cd-induced health issues and build effective remediation methods
for Cd-contaminated water.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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| eISSN: | 2083-5906 |
| ISSN: | 1230-1485 |
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