Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

, Volume 185, Issue 2, pp 1969–1975 | Cite as

Determination of trace metals in drinking water in Irbid City-Northern Jordan

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Abstract

Drinking water samples from Irbid, the second populated city in Jordan were analyzed for trace metals (As, Ba, Cd, Pb, Cr, Cu, Fe, Zn, Mn, Ni, and Se) content. The study was undertaken to determine if the metal concentrations were within the national and international guidelines. A total of 90 drinking water samples were collected from Al-Yarmouk University area. The samples were collected from three different water types: tap water (TW), home-purified water (HPW), and plant-purified water (PPW). All the samples were analyzed for trace metals using an inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. All the samples analyzed were within the United States Environmental Protection Agency admissible pH limit (6.5–8.5). The results showed that concentrations of the trace metals vary significantly between the three drinking water types. The results showed that HPW samples have the lowest level of trace metals and the concentrations of some essential trace metals in these samples are less than the recommended amounts. Slight differences in the metal contents were found between HPW samples, little differences between PPW samples; however, significant differences were found between TW samples. Although some TW samples showed high levels of trace metals, however, the mean level of most elements determined in the samples were well within the Jordanian standards as well as the World Health Organization standards for drinking water.

Keyword

Drinking water Trace metals Irbid—Jordan ICP-OES WHO 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the Deanship of Scientific Research at Yarmouk University for financial support. Thank to Dr. Rasheed Jaradat for helping us in drawing the map of the study area (Department of Earth and Environment Sciences).

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Chemistry, Faculty of ScienceYarmouk UniversityIrbidJordan

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