Drinking Water Quality and Human Health

• Main Author: Villanueva Belmonte, Cristina (auth)
• Other Authors: Levallois, Patrick (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2019
• Subjects: risk assessment; time series study; risk context; ammonia; fluoride; exposure assessment; water safety plan; HWTS implementation; human health; simulation study; drinking water guidance; chlorination by-product; adverse reproductive outcomes; spatial variations; THMs; zinc; radioactivity; thyroid disease; risk management; infants; water contamination; infant health; small for gestational age; drinking water quality; methemoglobinemia; magnesium; monitoring; effect measure modification; nitrite; health-based guideline; environmental exposure; organic matter; Maryland; tap water; impact assessment; turbidity; chronic kidney disease; fever; diarrhoeal disease; rural water resources; drinking water; acute gastroenteritis; Nigeria; E. coli; pharmacokinetic modeling; chemical risk assessment; uncertainty factors; community water system; groundwater; dental health; inorganic manganese; atrazine; duration extrapolation; health insurance data; space-time detection; seasonality; fecal coliforms; water safety plans; preterm birth; dissolved oxygen; gravity-fed piped water scheme; urban area; cough; water operation data; screening method; endogenous nitrosation; infant exposure; sanitary inspection; waterborne disease outbreak; N-nitroso compounds; end-stage renal disease; arsenic; diarrhea; sodium; private wells; animal feeding operation; endocrine disruptor; Vibrio pathogens; LTD; disinfection by-product; chemical oxygen demand; potassium; biomonitoring; nitrate; annual effective dose; sub-Saharan Africa; France; carcinogenic; public health; enterococci; calcium; water and sanitation; pharmaceuticals; environment; drinking water distribution systems; water contaminants; Asia-Pacific region; Denmark; trihalomethanes; risk; cancer; low birth weight; drug labels
• Online Access: DOAB: download the publication; DOAB: description of the publication

The quality of drinking water is paramount for public health. Despite important improvements in the last decades, access to safe drinking water is not universal. The World Health Organization estimates that almost 10% of the population in the world do not have access to improved drinking water sources. Among other diseases, waterborne infections cause diarrhea, which kills nearly one million people every year, mostly children under 5 years of age. On the other hand, chemical pollution is a concern in high-income countries and an increasing problem in low- and middle-income countries. Exposure to chemicals in drinking water may lead to a range of chronic non-communicable diseases (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular disease), adverse reproductive outcomes, and effects on children's health (e.g., neurodevelopment), among other health effects. Although drinking water quality is regulated and monitored in many countries, increasing knowledge leads to the need for reviewing standards and guidelines on a nearly permanent basis, both for regulated and newly identified contaminants. Drinking water standards are mostly based on animal toxicity data, and more robust epidemiologic studies with accurate exposure assessment are needed. The current risk assessment paradigm dealing mostly with one-by-one chemicals dismisses the potential synergisms or interactions from exposures to mixtures of contaminants, particularly at the low-exposure range. Thus, evidence is needed on exposure and health effects of mixtures of contaminants in drinking water. Finally, water stress and water quality problems are expected to increase in the coming years due to climate change and increasing water demand by population growth, and new evidence is needed to design appropriate adaptation policies.This Special Issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) focuses on the current state of knowledge on the links between drinking water quality and human health.