Health Risk Assessment on Copper Containers Used for Drinking Water Reservation

Objectives To assess the health risk of metal ions in drinking water reserved in copper containers and to provide some scientific evidences for the safe use of copper containers.

Methods The concentration of metal ions in the water reserved in copper containers was monitored; the container were purchased from markets by random. The health risk assessment was carried out by referring to the U.S.EPA health risk assessment model.

Results The annual risk levels of personal health hazards for metal ions in brass and copper containers were 1.37×10^-5/y and 3.41×10^-7/y, respectively, which were lower than the maximum allowance levels recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). The biggest risk of copper containers was carcinogen cadmium, which accounted for 99.9% and 79.5% of risks, respectively. More attentions should be paid to cadmium in the coming risk assessment.

Conclusions The health risk of storing drinking water in copper container was lower than the maximum allowance level recommended by ICRP, which demonstrated that using copper containers for reserving drinking water was safe.