Comparison of Two Analytical Methods for Measurement of Iron Concentration in Groundwater in Chandrapur District, Central India

Water is an indispensible part of human life. Groundwater is contributing significantly as a source of drinking, cooking and domestic purposes. Groundwater contains different heavy metals and iron is one of the dominating one. Chronic exposure of iron through groundwater consumption above WHO drinking water standard of 0.3 mg/L has well understood. To ascertain the impacts of groundwater iron on human health its accurate measurement is an essential aspect. A research has been carried out to compare two analytical methods: ICP method (ICP-OES Dv 7000) and Aquaquant Iron Analysis Kit Merck, range 0.25-15 mg/L, Germany (visual method). Total 36 groundwater samples in Chandrapur district of Central India were assessed for post monsoon season of 2013 (October) for iron concentration by these two analytical methods. Findings of the study suggested that ICP method gives more accurate results in a wide range of iron concentration under field conditions as compared with Aquaquant Iron Analysis Kit. At 0.0-1.0 mg/L of Fe results obtained by both these method were in accordance with each other. At 1.0-2.0 mg/L of Fe, ICP gave slight increased in concentration as compared with test kit. However, at 5.0 mg/L of Fe by test kit, results obtained by ICP method was significantly lower.