Determining the Water Quality of Wetlands in St. Johns and Cedar Rivers in Jacksonville, FL.
Drinking water quality is a common concern for people all over the world. Nowadays, the relationship between water quality and quantity, on one hand, and health states, on the other hand, constitutes an acute public health issue. Worldwide, sickness associated with contaminated drinking water has been intensely researched, due to the causal relationship with diseases such as cancer, congenital malformations and endocrine disturbances, in addition to acute and chronic toxicity [5,6]. In our investigation it was found that cadmium (one of the targeted heavy metals) was 40% over the permissible exposure limit (OSHA) in drinking water in the targeted wetlands. All other heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, chromium and zinc were under permissible exposure limit. Since cadmium is retained in the kidneys and liver, which is 50 to 70% of body weight, that can lead to kidney disease and serious liver damage [7]. The results obtained in this investigation should be treated as baseline information and should not reflect the overall drinking water quality in the wetlands under investigation.
Presenter: Dr. Jayanta Ghosh, Physical Science
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