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. 2017 Feb 1:579:1643-1648.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.03.146.

Human health screening and public health significance of contaminants of emerging concern detected in public water supplies

Robert Benson  1 , Octavia D Conerly  2 , William Sander  3 , Angela L Batt  4 , J Scott Boone  5 , Edward T Furlong  6 , Susan T Glassmeyer  7 , Dana W Kolpin  8 , Heath E Mash  9 , Kathleen M Schenck  10 , Jane Ellen Simmons  11
Affiliations

Human health screening and public health significance of contaminants of emerging concern detected in public water supplies

Robert Benson et al. Sci Total Environ. .

Abstract

The source water and treated drinking water from twenty five drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) across the United States were sampled in 2010-2012. Samples were analyzed for 247 contaminants using 15 chemical and microbiological methods. Most of these contaminants are not regulated currently either in drinking water or in discharges to ambient water by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) or other U.S. regulatory agencies. This analysis shows that there is little public health concern for most of the contaminants detected in treated water from the 25 DWTPs participating in this study. For vanadium, the calculated Margin of Exposure (MOE) was less than the screening MOE in two DWTPs. For silicon, the calculated MOE was less than the screening MOE in one DWTP. Additional study, for example a national survey may be needed to determine the number of people ingesting vanadium and silicon above a level of concern. In addition, the concentrations of lithium found in treated water from several DWTPs are within the range previous research has suggested to have a human health effect. Additional investigation of this issue is necessary. Finally, new toxicological data suggest that exposure to manganese at levels in public water supplies may present a public health concern which will require a robust assessment of this information.

Keywords: Contaminants of emerging concern; Drinking water; Human health; Margin of Exposure.

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References

    1. Glassmeyer ST; Furlong ET; Kolpin DW; Batt AL; Benson R; Boone JS; Conerly O; Donohue MJ; King DN; Kostich MS; Mash HE; Pfaller SL; Schenck KM; Simmons JE; Varughese EA; Vesper SJ; Villegas EN; Wilson VS Nationwide reconnaissance of contaminants of emerging concern in source and treated drinking waters of the United States. Submitted to Science of the Total Environment in parallel with this manuscript - PMC - PubMed
    1. Furlong ET; Batt AL; Glassmeyer ST; Mash H; Noriega M; Kolpin DW, Contaminants of emerging concern in source and treated drinking waters from 25 drinking water treatment plants: pharmaceuticals. Submitted to Science of the Total Environment in parallel with this manuscript. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Conley JM; Mash HE; Evans N; Schenck K; Rosenblum L; Glassmeyer ST.; Furlong ET; Kolpin DW; and Wilson VS Comparison of in vitro estrogenic activity and estrogen concentrations in source and treated waters from 25 drinking water treatment plants. Submitted to Science of the Total Environment in parallel with this manuscript. - PubMed
    1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Primary Drinking Water Regulations. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/dwstandardsregulations.
    1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Superfund Program, Provisional Peer-Reviewed Toxicity Values. See files for aluminum, iron, lithium, and vanadium. Available at: http://hhpprtv.ornl.gov/index.html.

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