Abstract
Volcanoes in a persistent state of open-vent degassing can contaminate air, water, soil, and vegetation with fluoride. People living in their shadow are exposed to this substance via several routes and for prolonged periods of time. They incur a health risk, but the exposure pathways have not been well quantified. We assess the intakes of fluoride through air inhalation, water consumption, inadvertent soil ingestion, and dermal contact with soil for children and adults in communities located within ~ 35 km downwind of Masaya Volcano, Nicaragua. A sampling network was deployed in January 2009 in order to determine the concentrations of fluoride in the air, drinking water, and surface soil. Using relevant exposure factors, we evaluated the contribution of each exposure route to the estimated total daily intake (\(ED{I}_{tot}\)) of fluoride. The \(ED{I}_{tot}\) for children varies between 0.11 and 0.46 mg/kg body weight/day and a risk of dental fluorosis occurs across the surveyed area. For children, fluoride intake due to air inhalation and/or incidental soil ingestion is always larger than that contributed by water consumption. Overexposure to fluoride in adults is less common and water is usually the primary exposure route to fluoride, although inhalation is important and even dominates at a few sites. The exposure assessment provides a simple screening tool for rapid identification of the pathways driving the health risk. Its application may help to target effort to remediate exposure levels for the greatest effect.
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Acknowledgements
This work was funded by a Royal Society ‘s research grant (2009/R2) awarded to P.D. during his previous affiliation with the Department of Environment and Geography, University of York. Gratitude is extended to Rebecca Sutton (Department of Environment and Geography, University of York) and Claudine Givron (Environmental Sciences, Earth & Life Institute, UCLouvain) for their technical assistance in the laboratory. We thank the reviewers for their constructive comments.
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This work was funded a Royal Society ‘s research grant (2009/R2) awarded to Pierre Delmelle during his previous affiliation with the Department of Environment and Geography, University of York.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Julie Calkins and Pierre Delmelle. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Julie Calkins and Pierre Delmelle and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Calkins, J., Delmelle, P. Quantitative analysis of persistent volcanic fluoride risk reveals differential exposure pathways for adults and children downwind of Masaya Volcano, Nicaragua. Bull Volcanol 83, 83 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-021-01504-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-021-01504-w