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eISSN: 2083-5906
ISSN: 1230-1485
ISSN: 1230-1485
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Human Health Risk Assessment and Source
Identification of Toxic Heavy Metals
by Multivariate Tools in Groundwater
1
College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
2
Key Laboratory of Comprehensive and Highly Utilization of Salt and Lake Resources, Qinghai Institute of Salt
and Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810008, China
3
Department of Environmental Sciences, Government College University, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
4
Department of Biological Sciences and Technology, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan
5
Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia
Submission date: 2024-02-27
Final revision date: 2024-04-22
Acceptance date: 2024-08-06
Online publication date: 2024-10-21
Publication date: 2025-08-20
Corresponding author
Muhammad Bilal Shakoor
College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan, Pakistan
College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan, Pakistan
Shafaqat Ali
Department of Environmental Sciences, Government College University, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
Department of Environmental Sciences, Government College University, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(5):6391-6401
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Groundwater contamination is a major threat to people depending on groundwater for their daily
water supply. The quality of groundwater has degraded due to the release of toxic contaminants in
groundwater from natural as well as man-made practices, thus resulting in the spread of water-related
diseases to humans. Thus, this study was planned to assess the groundwater contaminants and their
associated health effects on the residents of Lahore City, Pakistan. To assess the physicochemical
properties of groundwater, randomly, 62 samples of groundwater were collected from all over
the study area. The data showed that the Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS),
pH, and sulfates exceeded the safe limit of the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS),
and the concentration of heavy metals (lead, chromium, and cadmium) was also much higher than
the NEQS and World Health Organization (WHO) recommended levels. The multivariate analysis,
such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis, confirmed that toxic heavy
metals, including lead, chromium, and cadmium, originated from similar sources, such as industrial
activities in the study area. The results from chronic daily intake, hazard quotient, and cancer risk also
demonstrated that lead, chromium, and cadmium tested heavy metals showed potential carcinogenic
and non-carcinogenic risks to children and adults in the study area. Thus, this study concluded that groundwater is highly contaminated and not fit for human consumption. Future studies are required for
constant monitoring of groundwater quality and to develop mitigation methods to improve its quality
on urgent basis.
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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