Assessment of Arsenic, Chromium, and Lead Levels in Drinking Water After the 2023 Türkiye-Suriye Earthquakes: Implications for Public Health
Yıl 2025,
Cilt: 4 Sayı: 3, 89 - 93, 31.12.2025
Kübranur Korkmaz
,
Muhammet Enes Uçkaç
,
Pınar Karaduman
,
Eren Çolak
Öz
Objective: The 7.8 and subsequent 7.7 magnitude earthquakes that occurred in Türkiye on February 6, 2023, damaged tens of thousands of buildings and caused widespread destruction in Malatya. This study aims to assess the potential impacts of structural damage on drinking water quality.
Materials and Methods: Two pools were sampled using tap water (TW) from 10 locations in the Yeşilyurt and Battalgazi districts, and bottled water (BW) from 10 brands sourced from Malatya and surrounding provinces. Onethird of the water from each pool was removed, and the remaining water of TW and BW was boiled to prepare tea and coffee samples. This resulted in six sample groups: tap water (TW), bottled water (BW), tea made with bottled water (T-BW), tea made with tap water (T-TW), coffee made with bottled water (C-BW), and coffee made with tap water (C-TW).
Results: While the As level was measured at 0.628 µg/L in TW and BW samples, Cr and Pb values remained below the measurement limits; however, the lack of a specified limit in the relevant legislation for coffee/tea samples limited the study.
Conclusions: This study shows that As, Cr, and Pb levels in both TW and BW samples are within acceptable limits. However, long-term monitoring of heavy metal accumulation and evaluation of multidimensional environmental factors affecting water quality, as well as other metals, are required.
Etik Beyan
Approval was obtained from the Malatya Turgut Özal University Health Sciences Scientific Research Ethics Committee under protocol number 2025/183.
Destekleyen Kurum
Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye
Proje Numarası
2209-A - Research Project Support Programme for Undergraduate Students supported this study with project number 1919B012431251.
Teşekkür
The authors thank The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye which contributed to and supported this study. While preparing this report, we checked English for spelling and grammatical errors using the Grammarly program.
Kaynakça
-
1. Ozkula G, Dowell RK, Baser T, Lin J-L, Numanoglu OA, Ilhan O, et al. Field
reconnaissance and observations from the February 6, 2023, Turkey earthquake
sequence. Natural Hazards. 2023;119(1):663–700.
-
2. Donald AN, Raphael P, Olumide O, Amarachukwu O. The synopsis of environmental heavy metal pollution. Am J Environ Sci. 2022;18:125–34.
-
3. Mavroulis S, Mavrouli M, Lekkas E, Tsakris A. Managing Earthquake Debris: Environmental Issues, Health Impacts, and Risk Reduction Measures. Environments. 2023;10(11):192.
-
4. Gundogdu S. Turkey’s poor earthquake waste management. Science.
2023;380(6643):353–.
-
5. Oves M, Khan MS, Zaidi A, Ahmad E. Soil contamination, nutritive value,
and human health risk assessment of heavy metals: an overview: Springer; 2012.
-
6. Balali-Mood M, Naseri K, Tahergorabi Z, Khazdair MR, Sadeghi M. Toxic
mechanisms of five heavy metals: mercury, lead, chromium, cadmium, and arsenic. Frontiers in pharmacology. 2021;12:643972.
-
7. Jaishankar M, Tseten T, Anbalagan N, Mathew BB, Beeregowda KN. Toxicity, mechanism and health effects of some heavy metals. Interdiscip Toxicol.
2014;7(2):60–72.
-
8. Fraga CG. Relevance, essentiality and toxicity of trace elements in human
health. Molecular Aspects of Medicine. 2005;26(4):235–44.
-
9. Bhargava P, Gupta N, Vats S, Goel R. Health issues and heavy metals. Austin
J Environ Toxicol. 2017;3(1):3018.
-
10. Bawaskar HS, Himmatrao Bawaskar P, Himmatrao Bawaskar P. Chronic renal failure associated with heavy metal contamination of drinking water: a clinical report from a small village in Maharashtra. Clinical Toxicology.
2010;48(7):768–.
-
11. Naddafi K, Mesdaghinia A, Abtahi M, Hassanvand MS, Beiki A, Shaghaghi
G, et al. Assessment of burden of disease induced by exposure to heavy metals
through drinking water at national and subnational levels in Iran, 2019. Environmental Research. 2022;204:112057.
-
12. Ranaweera K, Grainger MN, French A, Mucalo MR. Construction and demolition waste repurposed for heavy metal ion removal from wastewater: A review of current approaches. International Journal of Environmental Science and
Technology. 2023;20(8):9393–422.
-
13. Fernandez-Luqueno F, Lopez-Valdez F, Gamero-Melo P, Luna-Suarez S,
Aguilera-Gonzalez EN, Martínez AI, et al. Heavy metal pollution in drinking
water-a global risk for human health: A review. African journal of environmental science and technology. 2013;7(7):567–84.
-
14. Massadeh AM, El-Rjoob A-WO, Gharaibeh SA. Analysis of selected heavy
metals in tap water by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry after pre-concentration using chelex-100 ion exchange resin. Water, Air,
& Soil Pollution. 2020;231:1–14.
-
15. Pant BR, Rawal DS, Thapa K, Shrestha SM, Koju R, Pandey DR. Post-earthquake water quality in Bhaktapur district, Nepal. Journal of water security.
2019;5.
-
16. Jamshidi S, Naderi A. Wetland restoration policies and the sustainability of
agricultural productions, lessons learnt from Zrebar Lake, Iran. Ecorestoration for sustainability. 2023:113–66.
-
17. Zohdi E, Abbaspour M. Harmful algal blooms (red tide): a review of causes,
impacts and approaches to monitoring and prediction. International Journal of
Environmental Science and Technology. 2019;16(3):1789–806.
-
18. Mavroulis S, Mavrouli M, Vassilakis E, Argyropoulos I, Carydis P, Lekkas
E. Debris management in Turkey provinces affected by the 6 February 2023
earthquakes: Challenges during recovery and potential health and environmental risks. Applied Sciences. 2023;13(15):8823.
-
19. Dündar MŞ, Altundağ H. Heavy metal determination of house dust in Adapazari, Turkey, after earthquake. 2002.
-
20. Jakovljević D, Lozanov-Crvenković Z. Water quality changes after Kraljevo
earthquake in 2010. Natural Hazards. 2015;79(3):2033–53.
-
21. Cheng I, Al Mamun A, Zhang L. A synthesis review on atmospheric wet
deposition of particulate elements: scavenging ratios, solubility, and flux measurements. Environmental Reviews. 2021;29(3):340–53.
-
22. van der Perk M, Stergiadi M, de Nijs TCM, Comans RNJ, Bierkens MFP.
The response of metal leaching from soils to climate change and land management in a temperate lowland catchment. CATENA. 2018;171:426–39.
-
23. Kanel SR, Das TK, Varma RS, Kurwadkar S, Chakraborty S, Joshi TP, et
al. Arsenic Contamination in Groundwater: Geochemical Basis of Treatment
Technologies. ACS Environ Au. 2023;3(3):135–52.
-
24. Xu H, Han Q, Adnan M, Li M, Wang M, Wang M, et al. Global Environmental Geochemistry and Molecular Speciation of Heavy Metals in Soils and Groundwater from Abandoned Smelting Sites: Analysis of the Contamination Dynamics and Remediation Alternatives in Karst Settings. Toxics. 2025;13(7):608.
-
25. Jafarpour K, Leangkim K, Anuar AN, Yuzir AM, Ros FC, Said NF, et al.
Impact of earthquake on river water quality based on combination of satellite data and groundwater analysis. Watershed Ecology and the Environment.
2024;6:114–24.
-
26. Roychoudhury AN, Petersen J. Geochemical evaluation of soils and groundwater affected by infiltrating effluent from evaporation ponds of a heavy mineral processing facility, West Coast, South Africa. Journal of Geochemical Exploration. 2014;144:478–91.
2023 Türkiye-Suriye Depremleri Sonrasında İçme Suyundaki Arsenik, Krom ve Kurşun Seviyelerinin Değerlendirilmesi: Halk Sağlığı Açısından Etkileri
Yıl 2025,
Cilt: 4 Sayı: 3, 89 - 93, 31.12.2025
Kübranur Korkmaz
,
Muhammet Enes Uçkaç
,
Pınar Karaduman
,
Eren Çolak
Öz
Amaç: Türkiye’de 6 Şubat 2023’te meydana gelen 7.8 ve ardından 7.7 büyüklüğündeki depremler, Malatya’da on binlerce binanın hasar görmesine ve geniş çaplı yıkıma neden olmuştur. Bu çalışma ile söz konusu depremler sonrası oluşan yapısal hasarın içme suyu kalitesi üzerindeki olası etkilerini değerlendirmeyi amaçladık.
Materyal ve Metot: Yeşilyurt ve Battalgazi ilçelerindeki 10 farklı noktadan alınan musluk suları (MS) ile Malatya ve çevre illerden temin edilen 10 farklı ticari markaya ait şişelenmiş sularından (ŞS) iki havuz örneği oluşturuldu. MS ve ŞS havuzlarından suyun üçte biri ayrıldıktan sonra geriye kalan sular kaynatılarak çay ve kahve örnekleri hazırlandı. Böylece toplam altı grup elde edildi: musluk suyu (MS), şişelenmiş su (ŞS), şişelenmiş sudan yapılan çay (Ç-ŞS), musluk suyundan yapılan çay (Ç-MS), şişelenmiş sudan yapılan kahve (K-ŞS) ve musluk suyundan yapılan kahve (K-MS).
Bulgular: ŞS ve MS örneklerinde As düzeyi 0,628 µg/L olarak ölçülürken, Cr ve Pb değerleri ölçüm limitlerinin altında kalmıştır; ancak kahve/çay numuneleri, ilgili mevzuatta sınır değer belirtilmemiş olması çalışmayı sınırlandırdı.
Sonuç: Bu çalışma hem MS hem de ŞS örneklerinde As, Cr ve Pb düzeylerinin kabul edilebilir sınırlar içinde olduğunu göstermektedir. Ancak ağır metal birikiminin uzun süreli izlenmesi ve diğer metallerin yanı sıra su kalitesini etkileyen çok boyutlu çevresel faktörlerin değerlendirilmesi gerekmektedir.
Proje Numarası
2209-A - Research Project Support Programme for Undergraduate Students supported this study with project number 1919B012431251.
Kaynakça
-
1. Ozkula G, Dowell RK, Baser T, Lin J-L, Numanoglu OA, Ilhan O, et al. Field
reconnaissance and observations from the February 6, 2023, Turkey earthquake
sequence. Natural Hazards. 2023;119(1):663–700.
-
2. Donald AN, Raphael P, Olumide O, Amarachukwu O. The synopsis of environmental heavy metal pollution. Am J Environ Sci. 2022;18:125–34.
-
3. Mavroulis S, Mavrouli M, Lekkas E, Tsakris A. Managing Earthquake Debris: Environmental Issues, Health Impacts, and Risk Reduction Measures. Environments. 2023;10(11):192.
-
4. Gundogdu S. Turkey’s poor earthquake waste management. Science.
2023;380(6643):353–.
-
5. Oves M, Khan MS, Zaidi A, Ahmad E. Soil contamination, nutritive value,
and human health risk assessment of heavy metals: an overview: Springer; 2012.
-
6. Balali-Mood M, Naseri K, Tahergorabi Z, Khazdair MR, Sadeghi M. Toxic
mechanisms of five heavy metals: mercury, lead, chromium, cadmium, and arsenic. Frontiers in pharmacology. 2021;12:643972.
-
7. Jaishankar M, Tseten T, Anbalagan N, Mathew BB, Beeregowda KN. Toxicity, mechanism and health effects of some heavy metals. Interdiscip Toxicol.
2014;7(2):60–72.
-
8. Fraga CG. Relevance, essentiality and toxicity of trace elements in human
health. Molecular Aspects of Medicine. 2005;26(4):235–44.
-
9. Bhargava P, Gupta N, Vats S, Goel R. Health issues and heavy metals. Austin
J Environ Toxicol. 2017;3(1):3018.
-
10. Bawaskar HS, Himmatrao Bawaskar P, Himmatrao Bawaskar P. Chronic renal failure associated with heavy metal contamination of drinking water: a clinical report from a small village in Maharashtra. Clinical Toxicology.
2010;48(7):768–.
-
11. Naddafi K, Mesdaghinia A, Abtahi M, Hassanvand MS, Beiki A, Shaghaghi
G, et al. Assessment of burden of disease induced by exposure to heavy metals
through drinking water at national and subnational levels in Iran, 2019. Environmental Research. 2022;204:112057.
-
12. Ranaweera K, Grainger MN, French A, Mucalo MR. Construction and demolition waste repurposed for heavy metal ion removal from wastewater: A review of current approaches. International Journal of Environmental Science and
Technology. 2023;20(8):9393–422.
-
13. Fernandez-Luqueno F, Lopez-Valdez F, Gamero-Melo P, Luna-Suarez S,
Aguilera-Gonzalez EN, Martínez AI, et al. Heavy metal pollution in drinking
water-a global risk for human health: A review. African journal of environmental science and technology. 2013;7(7):567–84.
-
14. Massadeh AM, El-Rjoob A-WO, Gharaibeh SA. Analysis of selected heavy
metals in tap water by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry after pre-concentration using chelex-100 ion exchange resin. Water, Air,
& Soil Pollution. 2020;231:1–14.
-
15. Pant BR, Rawal DS, Thapa K, Shrestha SM, Koju R, Pandey DR. Post-earthquake water quality in Bhaktapur district, Nepal. Journal of water security.
2019;5.
-
16. Jamshidi S, Naderi A. Wetland restoration policies and the sustainability of
agricultural productions, lessons learnt from Zrebar Lake, Iran. Ecorestoration for sustainability. 2023:113–66.
-
17. Zohdi E, Abbaspour M. Harmful algal blooms (red tide): a review of causes,
impacts and approaches to monitoring and prediction. International Journal of
Environmental Science and Technology. 2019;16(3):1789–806.
-
18. Mavroulis S, Mavrouli M, Vassilakis E, Argyropoulos I, Carydis P, Lekkas
E. Debris management in Turkey provinces affected by the 6 February 2023
earthquakes: Challenges during recovery and potential health and environmental risks. Applied Sciences. 2023;13(15):8823.
-
19. Dündar MŞ, Altundağ H. Heavy metal determination of house dust in Adapazari, Turkey, after earthquake. 2002.
-
20. Jakovljević D, Lozanov-Crvenković Z. Water quality changes after Kraljevo
earthquake in 2010. Natural Hazards. 2015;79(3):2033–53.
-
21. Cheng I, Al Mamun A, Zhang L. A synthesis review on atmospheric wet
deposition of particulate elements: scavenging ratios, solubility, and flux measurements. Environmental Reviews. 2021;29(3):340–53.
-
22. van der Perk M, Stergiadi M, de Nijs TCM, Comans RNJ, Bierkens MFP.
The response of metal leaching from soils to climate change and land management in a temperate lowland catchment. CATENA. 2018;171:426–39.
-
23. Kanel SR, Das TK, Varma RS, Kurwadkar S, Chakraborty S, Joshi TP, et
al. Arsenic Contamination in Groundwater: Geochemical Basis of Treatment
Technologies. ACS Environ Au. 2023;3(3):135–52.
-
24. Xu H, Han Q, Adnan M, Li M, Wang M, Wang M, et al. Global Environmental Geochemistry and Molecular Speciation of Heavy Metals in Soils and Groundwater from Abandoned Smelting Sites: Analysis of the Contamination Dynamics and Remediation Alternatives in Karst Settings. Toxics. 2025;13(7):608.
-
25. Jafarpour K, Leangkim K, Anuar AN, Yuzir AM, Ros FC, Said NF, et al.
Impact of earthquake on river water quality based on combination of satellite data and groundwater analysis. Watershed Ecology and the Environment.
2024;6:114–24.
-
26. Roychoudhury AN, Petersen J. Geochemical evaluation of soils and groundwater affected by infiltrating effluent from evaporation ponds of a heavy mineral processing facility, West Coast, South Africa. Journal of Geochemical Exploration. 2014;144:478–91.