Zinc Essay

Zinc is an important dietary component in human beings and animals. Although not considered hazardous, overdose of Zinc may cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness, colics, fevers and diarrhea and if it exceeds a certain limit it may also prove to be toxic. Zinc, present in natural water in small concentration, most commonly enters the domestic water supply from deterioration of galvanized iron and dezincification of brass[1,2]. Industrial and household waste, discharges directly or indirectly through leakages in sewage systems, into water sources and cause excessive pollution in surface and underground water[3].Tap water has shown higher concentration of Zinc due to leaching of zinc from piping and fittings[4] and in certain circumstances, found to have 10% contribution to the overall Zinc intake in humans[5,6] . Wells also have been reported to have high concentration of Zinc[5]. Drinking water containing zinc at levels above 3 mg/litre tends to be opalescent, develops a greasy film when boiled, and has an undesirable astringent taste[7]. According to WHO and United States Environmental Protection Agency the maximum permissible concentration of zinc in drinking water is 3ppm-5ppm [8,9]. Thus, examining …show more content…
Some other methods used are Dithizone method I and the zincon method. However, all these methods are spectroscopic methods requiring costly and huge equipments and need proper sampling and storage [10]. They also have their limitations when concentration to be measured is in ppm level .Optical Fiber grating(OFG) sensors may provide a good option as a chemical sensor in determining the concentration of trace elements in drinking water. This method is simple, requires minimum equipments and most important, can be monitored on line so as to check the concentration of the element in water