Lithium occurrence in drinking water sources of the United States.

ABSTRACT: Lithium (Li) is listed in the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) because insufficient exposure data exists for lithium in drinking water. To help fill this data gap, lithium occurrence in source waters across the United States was assessed in 21 drinking water utilities. From the 369 samples collected from drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs), lithium ranged from 0.9 to 161 μg/L (median = 13.9 μg/L) in groundwater, and from <0.5 to 130 μg/L (median = 3.9 μg/L) in surface water. Lithium in 56% of the groundwater and 13% of the surface water samples were above non-regulatory Health-Based Screening Level (HBSL) of 10 μg/L. Sodium and lithium concentrations were strongly correlated: Kendall's τ > 0.6 (p < 0.001). As sodium is regularly monitored, this result shows that s

SUBMITTER: Sharma N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9724211 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature