Elemental Analysis of Bottled and Sachet Water Commercially Available in Abuja Metropolis Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Rapid industrialization and indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture are causing heavy and varied pollution in aquatic environment leading to deterioration of water quality and depletion of aquatic biota. Drinking water that contain high amount of heavy metals is a serious threat to the health of humans. People are exposed primarily to heavy metals through water consumption; however, few heavy metals can bioaccumulate in the body and may induce cancer and other risks. The objectives of this study are to assess the quality of packaged water marketed in Abuja metropolis and to compare the level of conformance to quality standards based on different processing technologies employed by packaged water manufacturers in the treatment of raw water. Methods: Different samples of both sachet and bottled water along with their raw water were randomly collected from different water production companies, coded and analyzed using the flame system of the atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) for elemental contents and also compare results based on production processes from the different companies. Results: The results obtained showed that 13.3% of the raw water sample were contaminated with lead, 46.7% of the samples contain nickel above WHO limit, while 40% of the sample had concentration of cadmium above the WHO limit. Conclusion: The study showed that the reverse osmosis and activated carbon filtration technique are highly efficient in removing unwanted particles/ contaminants. The study further revealed that some of the finish product had substantial amount of metals which are above WHO and NAFDAC limit for drinking water.