[Assessment of the quality of drinking water in the industrial city and risk for public health].

Karabash city sprang up around the copper plant that uses local copper ore, which was composed of zinc, sulfur, barium, beryllium, arsenic, manganese, lead, antimony, chromium, cadmium, gallium, indium, scandium, thallium, germanium, osmium, and others. Centralized water supply for the city is organized from the lake Serebry and the flowage on the river B. Kialim. Part of the population uses water wells, voids and springs. In Serebry Lake and drinking groundwater there were found significant concentrations of nitrates, manganese, arsenic, cadmium, iron, lead barium, nickel, mercury and zinc. There are most exposed to toxic hazards from drinking water persons using water from Serebry aqueduct (hazard index for--children/ adults 2.75/1.1, respectively) and decentralized water supply sources (hazard index for children/adults--2.35/1.0). Maximal hazard coefficients were calculated for nitrates, arsenic and antimony. Among the systems mostly exposed to toxic effects are digestive, cardiovascular endocrine, nervous system and skin. Carcinogenic risk is caused by arsenic compounds, hexavalent chromium, and dichloroethane. Carcinogenic risk from water sources of decentralized water supply is 9,6 E-05, for water from Kialim reservoir--7,3 E-05. Maximum carcinogenic risk is associated with the water from the Serebry aqueduct, the risk reaches 2,17 E-04 and is characterized as unacceptable.