Abstract
Drinking-water guidelines and standards are an important tool to protect public health and provide regulator agencies and drinking-water producers with guidance on the production of adequate and safe drinking water. The potential hazard of chemicals polluting drinking water or resulting from the treatment of water are widely understood but often overestimated in relation to microbiological hazards. This chapter will provide some insight into the toxicological evaluation which forms the basis for the derivation of guidelines for drinking-water quality as set by the World Health Organization and will touch upon some differences between health-based guidelines and national standards. Special attention will be given to the toxicological impact of chemicals present in drinking water such as inorganic pollutants, pesticides and disinfectants and disinfectant by-products.
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Abbreviations
- BW:
-
body weight
- C:
-
concentration
- 2,4 D:
-
2,4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid
- 2,4 DB:
-
4-(2,4 dichlorophenoxy)butyric acid
- DBP:
-
disinfection by product
- DNA:
-
deoxyribonucleic acid
- EU:
-
European Union
- FAO:
-
Food and Agricultural Organization
- GV:
-
guideline value
- LOAEL:
-
lowest observed adverse effect level
- NOAEL:
-
no observed adverse effect level
- OECD:
-
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
- ppb:
-
parts per billion
- TDI:
-
tolerable daily intake
- TWI:
-
tolerable weekly intake
- USEPA:
-
United States Environmental Protection Agency
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
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van Leeuwen, F.X.R. (1998). Toxicological Approaches for Developing Drinking Water Standards. In: Hrubec, J. (eds) Quality and Treatment of Drinking Water II. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, vol 5 / 5C. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68089-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68089-5_1
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