Assessing water quality is essential for acquiring a better understanding of the importance of water in human society. In this study, the quality of groundwater resources in Jiroft city, Iran, using artificial intelligence methods to estimate the groundwater quality index (GWQI) was evaluated. The analysis of hydrochemical parameters, including arsenic (As), fluoride (F), nitrate (NO₃), and nitrite (NO₂), in 408 samples revealed that concentrations of F, NO₃, and NO₂ were below the WHO standard threshold, but levels of As exceeded the permissible value. The random forest model with the highest accuracy (R ² = 0.986) was the best prediction model, while logistic regression (R ² = 0.98), decision tree (R ² = 0.979), K-nearest neighbor (R ² = 0.968), artificial neural network (R ² = 0.955), and support vector machine (R ² = 0.928) predicted GWQI with lower accuracy. The non-carcinogenic risk assessment revealed that children had the highest hazard quotient for oral and dermal intake, with values ranging from 0.47 to 13.53 for oral intake and 0.001 to 0.05 for dermal intake. The excess lifetime cancer risk of arsenic for children, adult females, and males was found to be from 2.5 × 10^–4 to 7.2 × 10^–3, 1.2 × 10^–4 to 3.6 × 10^–3, and 4.3 × 10^–5 to 1.2 × 10^–3, respectively. This study suggests that any effort to reduce the arsenic levels in the Jiroft population should take into account the health hazards associated with exposure to arsenic through drinking water.

Introduction: Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene (BTEX) as the ozone precursors have been classified as the hazardous air pollutants because of their negative effects on humans. This article presents the results of the first assessment of source identification, spatial distribution and BTEX's Ozone- Forming Potential (OFP) in Zarand. Materials and methods: The current study was conducted at 30 geographically separated locations, in Zarand, Kerman, southeastern Iran, during the summer and winter of 2020. BTEX samples were collected using passive samplers and then analyzed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Spatial variations were surveyed using the Kriging method in GIS. Results: Total BTEX levels (79.26±26.87 µg/m3) during the summer were greater than their levels in the winter (37.38±29.18 µg/m3). The ranking of BTEX level in all samples followed as: toluene>m,p-xylene>o- xylene>ethylbenzene>benzene. The overall OFP of 374.79±135.08 µg/m3 in the summer and 172.61±148.81 µg/m3 in the winter were more than 100 µg/m3 as recommended guideline defined by World Health Organization (WHO), with toluene having the highest potential. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, BTEX relative abundances in all samples were toluene>m,p-xylene>o- xylene>ethylbenzene>benzene. Despite of concerns among inhabitants and workers, benzene concentration was lower than other studied species. Control measures such as management of fuel use in motor vehicles and industries and development of green space must be adopted to attenuate the level of toluene in the atmosphere in the studied area.