Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health

Volume 5, Issue 4, December 2015, Pages 297 - 310

Drinking water studies: A review on heavy metal, application of biomarker and health risk assessment (a special focus in Malaysia)

Authors
Nurul Hafiza Ab Razaka, Sarva Mangala Praveenaa, *, smpraveena@gmail.com, Ahmad Zaharin Arisb, Zailina Hashima
aDepartment of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
bCentre of Excellence for Environmental Forensics, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 3 89472692.
Corresponding Author
Sarva Mangala Praveenasmpraveena@gmail.com
Received 11 December 2014, Revised 6 February 2015, Accepted 3 April 2015, Available Online 2 May 2015.
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2015.04.003How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Biomarker; Drinking water; Health risk assessment; Heavy metal; Exposure
Abstract

Malaysia has abundant sources of drinking water from river and groundwater. However, rapid developments have deteriorated quality of drinking water sources in Malaysia. Heavy metal studies in terms of drinking water, applications of health risk assessment and bio-monitoring in Malaysia were reviewed from 2003 to 2013. Studies on heavy metal in drinking water showed the levels are under the permissible limits as suggested by World Health Organization and Malaysian Ministry of Health. Future studies on the applications of health risk assessment are crucial in order to understand the risk of heavy metal exposure through drinking water to Malaysian population. Among the biomarkers that have been reviewed, toenail is the most useful tool to evaluate body burden of heavy metal. Toenails are easy to collect, store, transport and analysed. This review will give a clear guidance for future studies of Malaysian drinking water. In this way, it will help risk managers to minimize the exposure at optimum level as well as the government to formulate policies in safe guarding the population.

Copyright
© 2015 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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Journal
Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
Volume-Issue
5 - 4
Pages
297 - 310
Publication Date
2015/05/02
ISSN (Online)
2210-6014
ISSN (Print)
2210-6006
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2015.04.003How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2015 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Cite this article

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Nurul Hafiza Ab Razak
AU  - Sarva Mangala Praveena
AU  - Ahmad Zaharin Aris
AU  - Zailina Hashim
PY  - 2015
DA  - 2015/05/02
TI  - Drinking water studies: A review on heavy metal, application of biomarker and health risk assessment (a special focus in Malaysia)
JO  - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
SP  - 297
EP  - 310
VL  - 5
IS  - 4
SN  - 2210-6014
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2015.04.003
DO  - 10.1016/j.jegh.2015.04.003
ID  - AbRazak2015
ER  -