F-bearing sediments and rocks in the East African Rift: characterization and evaluation of F release capacity

• Autores: Olaya Cossío, Dídac Navarro Ciurana, Cristina Domènech, Angels Canals i Sabaté, Manuela Barbieri, Daniele Pittalis, Albert Soler i Gil, Giorgio Ghiglieri
• Localización: Macla: revista de la Sociedad Española de Mineralogía, ISSN 1885-7264, Nº. 24, 2019
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Fluoride represents one of the most severe natural contaminant that affects groundwater as well as rivers and soils. More than 200 million people worldwide consume water with fluoride concentration exceeding the WHO guideline of 1.5 mg L-1 (WHO, 2008). Besides dental fluorosis, an excess of fluoride may cause skeletal fluorosis, a bone disease of severe pain. In the East African Rift Valley System (EARS) about 90% of the population exhibit varying degrees of fluorosis symptoms (Yoder et al. 1998) corresponding to over 80 million people (Smedley et al. 2002). FLOWERED (deFLuoridation technologies for imprOving quality of WatEr and agRo-animal products along the East African Rift Valley in the context of aDaptation to climate change, http://www.floweredproject.org) is an H2020 European project whose overall objective is to contribute to the development of a sustainable water management system. The study focus on areas affected by fluoride contamination in water, soils and food in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, with the aim of improving the living standards for local population. Here we present the study of representative rocks and soils samples with the aim to identify what minerals bear F and what is their alterability and capacity in releasing it to the water.