Impact of constructed wetland treatment on Quality of Life in Patients with heavy metal contamination
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22812694Keywords:
constructed wetland, heavy metal contamination, quality of life, WHOQOL-BREF, bioremediationAbstract
Background: Chronic exposure to lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury from contaminated water sources produces gradual, disabling symptom burdens that are captured more sensitively by quality of life (QoL) instruments than by biomarkers alone, yet the QoL benefit of remediation technologies such as constructed wetlands has rarely been measured directly.
Objective: To determine whether a constructed wetland treating a heavy-metal-contaminated community water source produces measurable improvement in patient-reported quality of life alongside reductions in water and blood metal concentrations.
Methods: In a prospective cohort of 126 patients with confirmed heavy-metal contamination, we measured water and blood lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury, and WHOQOL-BREF domain scores, at baseline and twelve months after commissioning a horizontal subsurface-flow constructed wetland.
Results: Water lead, cadmium, and arsenic fell by 81%, 76%, and 69% respectively; blood lead fell from 9.8 to 4.2 µg/dL (p<0.001). All four WHOQOL-BREF domains improved significantly, led by the physical (52.3 to 64.7) and environmental (48.9 to 61.2) domains, and blood lead reduction correlated with physical-domain improvement (r=0.41, p<0.001).
Conclusions: Constructed wetland treatment of a contaminated water source was followed by parallel reductions in body metal burden and significant, domain-specific improvements in quality of life, supporting inclusion of patient-reported QoL outcomes alongside biomonitoring when such remediation technologies are evaluated.
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