Mineral Composition of Tap Water in Israel

Vasiliy Rosen, ZBM Analytical Laboratory, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
Yona Chen, The Department of Soil and Water Sciences, The Faculty of Agriculture, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
Orit Gal Garber, ZBM Analytical Laboratory, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel

The sea water desalination is developing intensively in Israel especially in the last decade. At 2015 about 32% of all domestic water consumed was desalinated water that were blended with water from other sources such as Kineret Lake, coastal aquifer and mountain aquifer. The problem is that the desalination procedure provides fresh water that typically lacks minerals essential to human health and to agricultural productivity. Mg is of great importance in biology. Many researchers, including in Israel observed that the deficiency of this element positively correlated with coronary heart decease (CHD) mortality. We analyzed 28 tap water samples in different Israel cities (from the North to the South) to observe the Mg concentration in tap water and evaluate the concentration of other important macro- and microminerals in it. The data of the present survey (summer 2016) was compared with the results of the similar observation conducted at 2008. It was concluded that, regarding to toxic elements, tap water across Israel does not pose any health risk for consumer and may be used as drinking water without any household pre-treatment. This condition has not changed since 2008. The problem of Mg deficiency due to the use of desalinated water was observed in the half of sampling points in 2016, whereas no Mg deficiency was detected in 2008. It was found that mineral composition of tap water is changing daily to a great extent and this makes the interpretation of the survey results more difficult. The experiment conducted with the commercial filter "Brita" demonstrated that the home filtration of tap water prior to consumption as drinking water might worsen the situation due to Mg rejection and that this might be harmful to the consumer at prolonged exposure.