Future challenges to protecting public health from drinking-water contaminants.
Over the past several decades, human health protection for chemical contaminants in drinking water has been accomplished by development of chemical-specific standards. This approach alone is not feasible to address current issues of the occurrence of multiple contaminants in drinking water, some of which have little health effects information, and water scarcity. In this article, we describe the current chemical-specific paradigm for regulating chemicals in drinking water and discuss some potential additional approaches currently being explored to focus more on sustaining quality water for specific purposes. Also discussed are strategies being explored by the federal government to screen more efficiently the toxicity of large numbers of chemicals to prioritize further intensive testing. Water reuse and water treatment are described as sustainable measures for managing water resources for potable uses as well as other uses such as irrigation.
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA. eamurphy@pharmacy.rutgers.edu
Eileen A
EA
Murphy
Gloria B
GB
Post
Brian T
BT
Buckley
Robert L
RL
Lippincott
Mark G
MG
Robson
D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D005618:Fresh Water; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D011786:Quality Control; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D014881:Water Supply / Q000032:analysis / Q000592:standards*
D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical