Protection of Drinking Water

NOTE Chlorine is widely used in the protection of drinking water, the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, crop pesticides, paper, rubbers, resins and plastics, and thousands of other products. Nevertheless, since the early 1990s, there has been a groundswell of opinion to either ban or severely limit the use of chlorine in all manners of processes. This is based on observations associated with the probable adverse effect to the environment from certain chlorinated organic chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and the insecticide DDT. There is also concern in a number of other areas, for example, that free chlorine may contribute to effluent toxicity due to the formation of chloramines and trihalomethanes (THMs). In the United States in 1993 to 1994, this opinion was fueled by the possibility that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would... 

Enforce Laws and Regulations That Protect Health and Ensure Safety. This service involves full enforcement of sanitary codes, especially in the food industry full protection of drinking water supplies enforcement of clean air standards timely follow-up of hazards, preventable injuries, and exposure-related diseases identified in occupational and community settings monitoring quality of medical services (e.g., laboratory, nursing homes, and home health care) and timely review of new pharmacologic, biologic, and medical device applications. 

The protection of areas of interest to the environment and the protection of drinking water catchment areas. 

Kwak, S. J. and RusseU, C. S. (1994). Contingent valuation in Korean environmental planning apUot application to the protection of drinking water quality in Seoul. Environmental and Resource Economics, 4,511-26. 

Protection of drinking-water The range of possible pollutants is permanently growing and thus it is not possible to detect all of them individually. Thus broad band monitors with fast response to all toxic components seem to be a reasonable alternative. Biosensors based on... 

Drinking Water Health Advisories for Pesticides, Office of Drinking Water, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lewis Pubhshets, Chelsea, Mich., 1989. Includes data used for evaluating 1-day, 10-day, and longer-term health advisories for 50 pesticides which have a potential for being found in drinking water, with specific references as sources of information. 

The Safe Drinking Water Act protects the quality of drinking water in the IJ.S. This law focu.ses on all waters actually or potentially designated for drinking use, whether above or below ground. The Act authorized EPA to establish safe standards of purity and required all owners or operators of public water systems to comply with primary (health-related) standards. State governments, that assume this power from EPA, also encourage attainment of secondary standards (nuisance-related). 

EPA. 1985b. Health advisory. Washington, DC U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Drinking Water, September, 1985. 

EPA 822-B-OO-OOl, US Environmental Protection Agency, Drinking Water Standards and Health Advisories, Office of Water, Washington, DC (2000). 

EPA = Environmental Protection Agency DWEL = Drinking Water Equivalent Level ODW = Office of Drinking Water RfD = reference dose USAMBRDL = United States Army Medical Bioengineering Research and Development Laboratory... 

Evacuating residents and protecting the area, or providing a facility for treatment of drinking water and cleanup of the site... 

Proposed criteria for human health protection include drinking water concentrations less than 50 pg Mo/L, and daily dietary intakes less than 7 pg Mo/kg food — based on a 70-kg adult (Table 30.5). Molybdenum concentrations in blood of healthy people averaged 14.7 pg Mo/L, distributed between the plasma and erythrocytes. Anemic people had significantly lower blood molybdenum levels. In leukemia patients, molybdenum levels increased significantly in whole blood and erythrocytes but not in plasma (Shamberger 1979). Additional work is recommended on the use of blood in fish and wildlife as an indicator of molybdenum stress and metabolism (Eisler 1989). 

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