Assessment of NORMS and Heavy Metals in Drinking Water

The experiments detailed below guide a researcher on assessing whether there is the possibility of the presence of poor quality water by looking out for the presence of either heavy metals or NORMS. Introduction Water can outright be deemed as an indispensable commodity availed naturally to mankind. However, its degree of quality has to be assessed in a bid to avoid the possibility of the occurrences of diseases which may be deleterious caused by the consumption of unfit water or water suspected to be containing contaminants. The problem statement and the aims discuss the introduction further. Problem Statement NORMS actually imply to materials that bear radioactive properties within them; often stemmed out of industrial wastes or any sort of mining activities.

Aims This experiment aims to research on the presence of NORMS (particularly uranium and radium) in either mineral water, underground water, or distilled water as well as detect the presence of heavy metals in the same water samples. The experiment also aims to display the actual figures found at the end of the experiment and offer a discussion on the same. Lastly, the experiment aims to compare the results found against WHO recommendations concerning their permitted degrees in drinking water. This is important as their heightened levels may lead to health complications such as: Radium for instance, can possibly lead to bone cancer in the event that its accumulation in the bony skeleton reaches the heights of 0. 42Bq/L or even surpasses it.

It is then transferred into a high vacuum region of the instrument whereby mass filtration would begin followed by analysis by an ion detector. In this case, the mass filters would either be of the amalgamation of electrostatic or magnetic factors or of the quadruple form type of filter. Higher precision of the isotope proportionate as well as the sensitivity of the ICP-MS instrument would be achieved by the sector fields having the multi-ion collector instruments. Efficiency is guaranteed considering that the ICP-MS device is operational at atmospheric pressure and also due to the fact that there is a heightened through-put as well as a curtailed analysis time hence a researcher would be apprised of the quality of the underground water under study.

Notwithstanding, in regards to the radionuclides mentioned above, their complete doses should not exceed the threshold that WHO recommends of 100 μSv·yr-1. The concentrations of the radionuclides would then be determined utilizing a High Purity Germanium HPGe detector type GC2020 E7500 CSL at 122keV (60Co) stationed at 1. 77keV as well as the relative efficiency for energy 1. 33MeV stationed at 20% (Mathuthu & Olobatoke, 2016). An MCA would later be used to link the detector to the computer. Calibrations would be done on the detector for purposes of efficiency as well as energy allowing for counting to take place for a day long. This would work to heighten the sensitivity of the gamma spectrometer to the water samples not exclusive of the instances where the elimination of the disastrous radionucleotides is necessary.

The sample is further shifted to a different container for a detailed analysis. Conclusion This paper has clearly highlighted the various techniques that can be put into use in the analysis of drinking water that can either be of mineral, distilled, or underground origin. ICP-MS method is said to be appropriate for the detection of heavy metals but mostly at trace levels. Lsc method, on the other hand, is suitable for the detection of the gamma/beta activity in water whereas gamma spectrometry is critical for the detection of radionucleotides especially Uranium and Radium levels. KARAHAN, G. , TAŞKIN, H. , BİNGÖLDAĞ, N. , KAPDAN, E. , & YILMAZ, Y. , Venkatachalapathy, R. , & Ponnusamy, V. Influence of mineralogical and heavy metal composition on natural radionuclide concentrations in the river sediments.