Title of the project: "STUDY OF THE PRESENCE OF SUBSTANCES OF TOXICOLOGICAL INTEREST IN WATERS FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES AND THEIR POTENTIAL EFFECTS ON HEALTH, IN LOCALITIES OF THE ROSARIO DEPARTMENT"

- Introduction:

Access to drinking water is undoubtedly an essential prerequisite for achieving an adequate standard of living for health. In Argentina, the distribution of service infrastructure shows great inequalities between rural and urban areas and, within the latter, between urban centers and marginal areas. Particularly, the province of Santa Fe presents serious difficulties with access to drinking water. The population of some localities belonging to the Department of Rosario uses underground and/or surface water sources, coming from perforations or semi-upwelling wells, the water table, water mirrors (lagoons, rivers, streams), while other inhabitants have access to mains water. through community taps and/or unauthorized clandestine connections, and may present a chemical and microbial composition that makes it unsuitable for various uses, given the high values ​​of salinity, sulfates, arsenic, fluoride, nitrates, lead, among others. For the development of the project, water samples will be collected from different sources in urban and rural sectors of localities in the Rosario Department, where the presence of inorganic, microbiological and mutagenic substances will be determined through specific analysis techniques, and surveys will be carried out on the conditions of access to water and health status of citizens. The presence of substances in toxicological concentrations in different water sources justifies the study of this work plan, contributing to the knowledge of their probable adverse effects on human health and determining which contaminants are involved and thus what measures can be adopted to improve the people's quality of life.

– Hypothesis and Objectives:

Hypothesis

Certain substances of toxicological interest with potential adverse effects on health are present in water for human use and consumption from different sources, in urban and rural areas belonging to localities of the Rosario Department.

Objectives 

• Carry out a survey of the waters belonging to the target population.
• Determine the presence of the main chemical and microbiological substances in water samples that constitute a risk to people's health and verify if they comply with current regulations.
• Evaluate the mutagenic and genotoxic potential of chemical compounds in water samples.
• Study the impact on the health of the exposed population through the epidemiological relationship with susceptibility factors and associated pathologies

– Very abbreviated methodology and/or what it consists of

The water samples will be obtained at addresses selected by random method in different sectors of the population, belonging to the Rosario Department. Anonymous surveys will be carried out on the inhabitants, over 18 years of age, belonging to the target population. The information will be collected through a semi-structured personal interview and includes aspects related to the subject under study, such as: sources of water supply at home, habits regarding the use of water in the different activities that are usually carried out in the domestic sphere, possible water treatments, presence of any disease, and thus be able to assess the impact of water quality on the health of the population.

Link to access the survey:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fO63W6Nb9w6teeeu7JKRej_FlJc0m7uNXiW9sKtM784/viewf orm?chromeless=1&edit_requested=true

The determination of organoleptic, physical, chemical and microbiological parameters will be carried out in samples previously collected, duly labeled and kept in the dark and refrigerated at 4ºC until processing. Within the microbiological analysis, heterotrophic and coliform bacteria will be determined, and among the most toxic chemical substances, arsenic (As), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), fluorine (F), chlorides, sulfates, nitrates and nitrites will be studied. , following international standards according to the Official Association of Analytical Chemists (AOAC).

– Expected results, conclusions or purpose

This work aims to detect the presence of substances of toxicological interest in different water samples, intended for human consumption, from urban and rural areas of the Department of Rosario, thus contributing to the knowledge of their probable negative effects on human health and what measures can be adopted to achieve a better quality of life.

Related

Director: Valeria Cholich

Members: Cecilia Casabonne, Laura Piskulic, Natalia Mosconi, Arístides Pochettino, Ayelén Pagani, Facundo Durán and Paula Carazay.

Contact

vcholich@fbioyf.unr.edu.ar