Water quality health-based targets

Health-based targets for chemicals (e.g, the guideline values in the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality - WHO, 2004 WHO, 2006) are concentrations that would generally not have a negative health impact if consumed over a lifetime. Therefore, the likelihood of a particular chemical occurring at concentrations that would cause health impacts is the most appropriate indicator that the chemical may be of concern in such situations. 

A health-based target specifies the agreed criteria for the quality of water delivered to the consumer, It is used to evaluate the adequacy of existing installations and to assist in verification (through inspection and analysis). 

REGULATORY STATUS Criterion to protect freshwater aquatic life insufficient data Criterion to protect saltwater aquatic life insufficient data Criterion to protect human health ambient water (quality criterion should be 163 ng/L based on a corresponding lifetime cancer risk below 1x10 a cancer risk level of 1 in 100,000 is imposed by a concentration of 0.123 pg/L interim target risk levels criteria considered by EPA in the ranges of 10 10 and 10 28 ng/L, 2.8 ng/L, and 0.28 ng/L respectively USSR MAC 0.02 mg/L in water bodies used for domestic purposes, and 0 in water bodies used for fishery purposes... 

Therefore, the target-compound monitoring based on mass spectrometry (MS) methods that use single reaction monitoring (SIM) or selected reaction monitoring (SRM) modes, is often insufficient to assess the quality of environmental water, because only a limited number of analytes are recorded (rarely more than 100 compounds), while unknown and potentially harmful micro-contaminants present might represent a threat to environment and human health. 

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