Some Methodological Approaches to Assessing Health Risks Related to Potable Water Quality in Centralized Water Supply Systems

Abstract

Introduction: In the current variety of normative documentation for characterizing the impact of water pollutants from centralized water supply systems on public health, it seems relevant to consider methodological approaches to the hygienic assessment of drinking water and unify them in accordance with modern methods. Objective: To consider methodological approaches to assessing risks posed by potable water quality in centralized water supply systems based on public health monitoring data. Materials and methods: The authors reviewed regulatory documents on health risk assessment from chronic exposure to chemicals in tap water. An algorithm has been developed to optimize the assessment of three types of potential risk posed by chemical and organoleptic water quality indicators: carcinogenic, non-carcinogenic, and organoleptic. Results: In the first place, we determined steps of risk assessment aimed at focusing on priority indicators and excluding those chemicals which method of determination does not allow determining the concentration or interferes with its averaging. The variability in the assessment of non-carcinogenic risk due to differences in the values of safe doses/concentrations and the procedure for calculating risk values and their interpretation was noted. A comparative description of the procedure for assessing carcinogenic risk and the classification of its levels are given. The authors present an algorithm for optimizing risk assessment related to the quality of drinking water from centralized water supply systems based on socio-hygienic monitoring data. Conclusion: The presented algorithm, which is based on regulations with authors’ additions, involves most of the aspects that hygienists face when planning and studying the health effects of drinking water quality. It enables optimization of assessing risks of exposure to water contaminants from centralized water supply systems based on socio-hygienic monitoring data. In addition, it summarizes the ambiguous procedure for risk assessment established in the regulatory documentation, supplemented by the experience of domestic long-term studies.