Geochemical evaluation of fluoride contamination of groundwater in the Thoothukudi District of Tamilnadu, India

Fluoride is a chemical element that has been shown to cause significant effects on human health through drinking water. Different forms of fluoride exposure are of importance and have shown to affect the body’s fluoride content and thus increasing the risks of fluoride-prone diseases. Fluoride has b...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Singaraja, C., Chidambaram, S., Anandhan, P., Prasanna, Mohan Viswanathan, Thivya, C., Thilagavathi, R., Sarathidasan, J.
Format: Journal Article
Published: SpringerOpen 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27704
_version_ 1848752337325129728
author Singaraja, C.
Chidambaram, S.
Anandhan, P.
Prasanna, Mohan Viswanathan
Thivya, C.
Thilagavathi, R.
Sarathidasan, J.
author_facet Singaraja, C.
Chidambaram, S.
Anandhan, P.
Prasanna, Mohan Viswanathan
Thivya, C.
Thilagavathi, R.
Sarathidasan, J.
author_sort Singaraja, C.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Fluoride is a chemical element that has been shown to cause significant effects on human health through drinking water. Different forms of fluoride exposure are of importance and have shown to affect the body’s fluoride content and thus increasing the risks of fluoride-prone diseases. Fluoride has beneficial effects on teeth; however, low concentrations of fluoride intensify the risk of tooth decay. Fluoride can also be quite detrimental at higher concentrations at skeletal fluorosis. The Thoothukudi District is a hard rock and alluvial plain marked as one of the Fluoride-increase area in Tamilnadu due to occurrence of various rock types including fluoride-bearing minerals. The F− content of groundwater can thus originate from the dissolution of Fluoride-bearing minerals in the bed rock. Hundred representative groundwater samples from Thoothukudi District were collected during two different seasons. Samples were analysed for F−, other major cations and anions. The study area is chiefly composed of hornblende biotite gneiss, charnockite, alluvio marine, fluvial marine and granite with small patches of quartzite and sandstone. Higher concentration of fluoride is observed during pre-monsoon (3.3 mg l–1) compared to the post-monsoon (2.4 mg l–1) due to the dilution effect. Spatial distribution and factor score show that higher concentrations of F− are noted in the north and central part of the study area owing to lithology. Bicarbonate is well correlated with F− which explains that both ions were derived from the weathering. While F− has a very weak correlation with pH which may be due to the increase of alkalinity resulting from the increase of carbonate and bicarbonate ions.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T08:07:01Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-27704
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T08:07:01Z
publishDate 2014
publisher SpringerOpen
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-277042017-09-13T15:14:32Z Geochemical evaluation of fluoride contamination of groundwater in the Thoothukudi District of Tamilnadu, India Singaraja, C. Chidambaram, S. Anandhan, P. Prasanna, Mohan Viswanathan Thivya, C. Thilagavathi, R. Sarathidasan, J. Fluoride Weathering Lithology Drinking water Hard rock Fluoride is a chemical element that has been shown to cause significant effects on human health through drinking water. Different forms of fluoride exposure are of importance and have shown to affect the body’s fluoride content and thus increasing the risks of fluoride-prone diseases. Fluoride has beneficial effects on teeth; however, low concentrations of fluoride intensify the risk of tooth decay. Fluoride can also be quite detrimental at higher concentrations at skeletal fluorosis. The Thoothukudi District is a hard rock and alluvial plain marked as one of the Fluoride-increase area in Tamilnadu due to occurrence of various rock types including fluoride-bearing minerals. The F− content of groundwater can thus originate from the dissolution of Fluoride-bearing minerals in the bed rock. Hundred representative groundwater samples from Thoothukudi District were collected during two different seasons. Samples were analysed for F−, other major cations and anions. The study area is chiefly composed of hornblende biotite gneiss, charnockite, alluvio marine, fluvial marine and granite with small patches of quartzite and sandstone. Higher concentration of fluoride is observed during pre-monsoon (3.3 mg l–1) compared to the post-monsoon (2.4 mg l–1) due to the dilution effect. Spatial distribution and factor score show that higher concentrations of F− are noted in the north and central part of the study area owing to lithology. Bicarbonate is well correlated with F− which explains that both ions were derived from the weathering. While F− has a very weak correlation with pH which may be due to the increase of alkalinity resulting from the increase of carbonate and bicarbonate ions. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27704 10.1007/s13201-014-0157-y SpringerOpen fulltext
spellingShingle Fluoride
Weathering
Lithology
Drinking water
Hard rock
Singaraja, C.
Chidambaram, S.
Anandhan, P.
Prasanna, Mohan Viswanathan
Thivya, C.
Thilagavathi, R.
Sarathidasan, J.
Geochemical evaluation of fluoride contamination of groundwater in the Thoothukudi District of Tamilnadu, India
title Geochemical evaluation of fluoride contamination of groundwater in the Thoothukudi District of Tamilnadu, India
title_full Geochemical evaluation of fluoride contamination of groundwater in the Thoothukudi District of Tamilnadu, India
title_fullStr Geochemical evaluation of fluoride contamination of groundwater in the Thoothukudi District of Tamilnadu, India
title_full_unstemmed Geochemical evaluation of fluoride contamination of groundwater in the Thoothukudi District of Tamilnadu, India
title_short Geochemical evaluation of fluoride contamination of groundwater in the Thoothukudi District of Tamilnadu, India
title_sort geochemical evaluation of fluoride contamination of groundwater in the thoothukudi district of tamilnadu, india
topic Fluoride
Weathering
Lithology
Drinking water
Hard rock
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27704