Monitoring and Health Risk Assessment of Ions in Bottled Spring Water Samples

This study aims to determine the concentrations of fluoride, nitrite, nitrate, chloride, sulfate, phosphate, calcium, sodium, magnesium, ammonium, and potassium ions in different natural spring water brands available in the markets using ion chromatography. The ion chromatography technique is an accurate, sensitive, and reliable method for determining sample anion and cation concentrations. Measurement range, calibration, method detection level, repeatability, precision, recovery, and standard deviation were evaluated to assess the suitability of the method. The R² values of anion and cation calibration plots were good (greater than 0.994) in this method. The recovery values for low and high concentrations changed from 101 to 111% and from 97 to 104%, respectively. The concentration results were used for human health risk assessment, using Chronic Daily Intake of nitrate and fluoride. The potential adverse health effects of fluoride intake were less than 1 for adults, so there is no potential risk. Moreover, our results suggest that there is a risk for dental decay according to the fluoride limits in spring water recommended by the World Health Organization.