Environmental Health Risk Analysis Due to Exposure Nitrit and Cadmium from Well Water on Tarus Village

Analisis Risiko Kesehatan Lingkungan Akibat Paparan Nitrit dan Kadmium dari Air Sumur di Kelurahan Tarus

Abstract

Well water of Tarus might have been contaminated with nitrite and cadmium due to over usage of SP-36 and urea fertilizers. Therefore, a piece of descriptive experimental research has been initiated in Kelurahan Tarus to compare nitrite and cadmium contents in well water with the official standards or raw drinking water and to analyze the risk of nitrite and cadmium to human health. Ten water samples were extracted each from wells located in the rice field and residential areas. Nitrite and cadmium were derived from spectrophotometry and AAS analyses, respectively. Official raw drinking water standards were according to PP 82 Tahun 2001 and PerMenKes 492 Tahun 2010. Human health risk prediction was based on the Public Health Assessment. Results show that there were three and five wells in the rice field and residential areas detected as containing nitrite; however, the concentrations were lower than the official standard for raw drinking water.  Whereas for cadmium, there were eight and seven wells in the rice field and residential areas, respectively, detected with levels higher than the official standard. Risk analysis revealed that nitrite is considered to be safe for human health; while cadmium imposed some risks. There were 14, 12, 10, and three wells can impose a risk to human health in 30, 20, 10, and five years, respectively. It is, therefore, recommended that cautions have to be taken when consuming water from the cadmium contaminated well e.g. through reduction of the amount of water consumption, water treatment, and reduction in fertilizer use for the area.