Pollution characteristics and health risk of sixty-five organics in one drinking water system: PAEs should be prioritized for control

Abstract

Currently, a large number of emerging organic contaminants have been detected in domestic and international drinking water systems. However, there are differences among the research methods, which lead to system errors in directly comparing the hazards of different contaminants, so it is difficult to analyze the priority control pollutants and the risk control target in drinking water from previous studies. Therefore, we selected a drinking water treatment plant (DWTP) in the east of China, and detected trihalomethanes (THMs), antibiotics, phthalate esters (PAEs), organophosphate esters (OPEs), per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), a total of sixty-five organic contaminants in one batch water sample of four seasons, and carried out the whole process monitoring of "Source water-DWTP-Network-Users", and calculated the health risks of contaminants in tap water. The results showed that DWTP could effectively remove antibiotics and PAEs; the removal rate of coagulation for antibiotics can be up to 47%; the release of PAEs in the plastic water supply pipe leads to a significant increase of the concentrations in the water transportation system, which can reach 2.92 times of that in finished water; compared with other contaminants, THMs and PAEs in tap water have higher health risks. This study reveals that THMs and PAEs are priority control organic pollutants, and the water supply network is the key risk control target in the drinking water system, providing a theoretical basis for how to ensure the safety of drinking water.