Gormican, A. Inorganic elements in foods used in hospital menus. Public Health, 67: 429 (1977). The Risks of Excessive Iron in Well Water. Acute iron poisoning in children. Adults absorb an average of 6.5% (range 3 to 10%), with women absorbing up to four times as much as men.Footnote 26,Footnote 31, In the bloodstream, iron binds to transferrin and is transported to the spleen, bone marrow and liver, which are the main storage sites for endogenous iron. Kirkpatrick, D.C. and Coffin, D.E. Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, London, U.K. (1975). Watch out for orange streaks forming in areas that have been exposed to the well water. It is an essential element for humans, and it is used in a variety of industrial processes. Pap., 140: 17 (1972). Concentration and deposition of trace metals in Ontario -- 1982. Similarly, the mean annual dry deposition of iron ranged from 36.22 mg/m2 in the south to 29.91 µg/m2 in the north. Contract prepared by Litton Systems, Bethesda, MD, for the National Air Pollution Control Administration, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. You may also notice that the water begins to give off an unpleasant odor. and Lusis, M.A. 857 pp. To test your well water, you first need to get a sample. Download the entire report (PDF format, 31 K, 4 pages), Iron is generally present in surface waters as salts containing Fe(III) when the pH is above 7. High levels of iron can be fatal, but the amount found in drinking water is typically too low to be dangerous. threshold value was 0.12 mg/litre. Anonymous. Trace Elem. This can result in severe damage to your pipes. At concentrations above 0.3 mg/L, iron can stain laundry and plumbing fixtures and produce undesirable tastes in beverages. Analytical Methods and Treatment Technology. It forms the familiar flaky texture and orange coloring of rust. reported that 5% of a 15- to 20-member taste test panel were able to detect ferrous sulphate in distilled water at a concentration of 0.04 mg/L, approximately 20% detected a concentration of 0.3 mg/L, and 50% detected a concentration of 3.4 mg/L.Footnote 43. Watt, B.K. .Hardness levels between 80 and 100 mg/L (as CaCO3) provide acceptable balance between … Chemical factors that influence the availability of iron and manganese in aqueous systems. Inst. In: Canadian minerals yearbook 1983-84. Review and outlook. Well water is drawn directly from the ground, so it is never going to be 100% pure. Less than 1 mg/d of endogenous iron is lost by the skin, faeces and urine.Footnote 33, The ingestion of large quantities of iron results in haemochromatosis, a condition in which normal regulatory mechanisms do not operate effectively, leading to tissue damage as a result of the accumulation of iron. Therefore, a maximum acceptable concentration has not been set. Water Quality Branch, Inland Waters Directorate, Environment Canada, Ottawa (1985). Air Quality Assessment Unit, Etobicoke (1987). The aesthetic objective for iron in drinking water is ≤0.3 mg/L (≤300 µg/L). Iron removal often consists of oxidation of soluble Fe(II) to insoluble Fe(III) using chlorine, potassium permanganate or ozone as the oxidants.Footnote 24,Footnote 25 This is followed by liquid/solid separation, which usually consists of filtration only, although sedimentation is sometimes employed prior to filtration.Footnote 26 Surface water treatment plants designed for turbidity removal will generally reduce iron to acceptable levels as long as the iron is not complexed by organics or natural silicas.Footnote 26, Iron, an essential element in human nutrition, is an integral component of cytochromes, porphyrins and metalloenzymes.