Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Drinking water Standards Australia'

4 pp.
Gasses, minerals, bacteria, metals and chemicals suspended or dissolved in water can influence the quality of the water and hence affect our health. Therefore, EPA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has established limits on the concentration of certain drinking water contaminants allowed in public water supplies. This publication discusses drinking water standards and how these standards are set.

The provision of safe drinking water provides a dramatic example of the inherent complexity involved in incorporating environmental justice (EJ) considerations into the implementation and enforcement of new environmental standards. To promote substantive EJ, implementation policy must be concerned with the net risk reduction of new and revised regulations. The regulatory concern is that higher water bills for low-income customers of small public water systems may result in less disposable income for other health-related goods and services. In the net, this trade-off may be welfare decreasing, not increasing. Advocates of Health–Health Analysis have argued that the reduction in health-related spending creates a problem for traditional benefit-cost analysis since the long-run health implications of this reduction are not considered. The results of this investigation tend to support this contention. An evaluation of the internal structure of consumption expenditures reveals that low-expenditure households can be expected to react to an increase in the relative price of housing-related goods and services due to a water-rate hike by reducing both housing and health-related expenditures. That is, the representative low-expenditure household re-establishes equilibrium by not only decreasing housing-related spending, but also by decreasing spending on health-related expenditures in a modest but significant way. These results reflect the fact that expenditures on housing are a major proportion of overall household spending, and that accommodating drinking water surcharges exacerbates both health and food security concerns for low-expenditures households.

Setting drinking water standards involves both technical knowledge and an understanding of societal values and institutions. To provide perspective and tools for evaluating these issues a set of historical and current regulatory assessments are presented here. The first of these case studies considers the history of the 1914 Public Health Service drinking water standards and is based on information in archival materials and journal articles of the time period. A simulation model to estimate the costs and benefits of proposed drinking water regulations on U.S. community water systems is then developed. The model simulates current contaminant concentrations and existing treatment types based on fitted statistical models. For systems that exceed any of the drinking water standards included in the model, the costs and effectiveness of alternative compliance strategies are simulated, and the system is assumed to select the least costly strategy capable of achieving compliance with the standards. This modeling approach allows for quantitative estimates of the uncertainty in regulatory impacts, geographic and size class specificity, and the consideration of multiple standards simultaneously. The model is applied first to the case of a lower drinking water standard for arsenic. The marginal cost-effectiveness of different standards and the impacts of several alternative regulatory approaches are considered. Discrepancies in previous estimates of compliance costs are shown to result primarily from differences in the treatment process cost estimates used by the different studies. An evaluation of alternative regulatory approaches for arsenic indicates that point-of-use treatment has the potential to be a lowcost means of compliance for smaller water systems but would most likely provide less uniform water quality than centralized treatment, with costs and performance highly dependent on the frequency of monitoring and service. The simulation model is then applied to consider jointly standards for three contaminants: arsenic, nitrate, and uranium. The costs and benefits of imposing the three standards simultaneously are smaller than the sum of the costs and benefits of the individual standards. For these contaminants the difference between the sum of the individual analyses and the integrated analysis is fairly small, but the effects of joint regulation may be larger for contaminants with more highly correlated occurrence distributions.

The formation of an objectionable "swampy" odour in drinking water distribution systems in Perth, Western Australia, was first described by Wajon and co-authors in the mid-1980s (Wajon et al., 1985; Wajon et al., 1986; Wajon et al, 1988). These authors established that the odour, variously described as "swampy", "sewage" or "cooked vegetable" was caused by dimethyltrisulfide (DMTS) which has an odour threshold concentration of 10 nanograms per litre (ng/L). Investigations described in the present Thesis extend the work of Wajon and co-workers in attempting to establish the origin and cause of DMTS formation in Perth drinking water distribution systems.The DMTS problem appeared to be confined to water originating from a particular type of groundwater, specifically groundwater sourced from shallow, unconfined aquifers, which contain relatively high concentrations of sulfide, dissolved natural organic matter (NOM) and dissolved iron. DMTS was not present in the groundwater, but only formed in the distribution system, after treatment of groundwater via alum coagulation-filtration and oxidation processes. One objective of the present work was to determine the reasons for the observed association between DMTS formation and this specific groundwater type. A primary focus was to investigate the chemistry and biochemistry of sulfur species and NOM which might act as precursors to DMTS. The work was driven by the view that increased understanding of the problem might lead to more effective and acceptable treatment solutions than those presently in use.The observation that DMTS forms in distributed water that originates from groundwater, but not in water from surface sources has led to the hypothesis that groundwater NOM may contain precursor(s) to DMTS For example, it was proposed that methyl esters and ethers within humic substances might be a source of methyl groups that ++
could participate in DMTS formation in distributed water (Wajon and Heitz, 1995; Wajon and Wilmot, 1992). Further, comparison of levels of reduced sulfur with levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in groundwaters feeding Wanneroo GWTP revealed that a positive correlation between these two parameters existed. This observation provided further impetus to examine the nature of NOM in these groundwater systems. In the present study (discussed in Chapter 3), NOM from two Perth drinking water sources was isolated and characterised, with the aim of identifying major differences in structure and/or functional groups that might influence DMTS formation. NOM was isolated from water samples using ultrafiltration, and characterised using pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) and offline- thermochemolysis/methylation (TCM). Pyrolysis of groundwater NOM yielded a high proportion of organosulfur compounds, primarily methyl thiophenes and sulfur gases, but did not yield detectable amounts of methoxy-aromatic compounds. Analysis by TCM yielded sulfur compounds tentatively identified as the methyl esters of methylthiopropanoate and methylthiobutanoate, compounds that may arise as degradation products of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), an algal odmoregulator Compounds such as DMPS could potentially undergo reactions to form DMTS in distributed water.The task of investigating the formation of nanogram-per-litre concentrations of DMTS demanded the development of new analytical procedures that could be used to determine similarly low concentrations of DMTS precursors. Evidence existed to suggest that inorganic polysulfides could be plausible precursor compounds, and since no technique existed to analyse and quantify individual polysulfide homologues a new technique needed to be developed and verified. The technique, first used in a semiquantitative manner by ++
Wajon and Heitz (1995), utilizes methyl iodide to derivatise polysulfides in-situ. The technique was developed further and shown to be quantitative and specific for inorganic polysulfides. Further, a new procedure for the determination of d i methyl polysulfides (DMPSs; CH3SnCH3, where n = 2-5), based on purge and trap was developed. In this new procedure analytes were trapped on a "Grob" activated charcoal tube, which was integrated into a commercially available, automated purge and trap instrument. Perdeuterated analogues of the DMPS analytes were synthesized and used as internal standards. These modifications resulted in a more rapid and robust procedure than the previously used procedures, vii which were based on closed loop stripping analysis (CLSA). Validation of the precision, accuracy, linearity and robustness of the new procedures for both inorganic polysulfides and dimethylpolysulfides is described in Chapter 4.Previous authors (Wajon and Heitz, 1995; Wajon and Wilmot, 1992; Wilmot and Wajon, 1997) hypothesized that DMTS could arise in the distribution system from residual polysulfides or other reduced sulfur compounds originating from groundwater. The latter authors showed that a small proportion of sulfide in the groundwater was not completely oxidised to sulfate during the water treatment process and proposed that this residual reduced sulfur fraction, which they referred to as non-sulfide reduced sulfur (NSRS) could contain precursors to DMTS. In a review of the chemistry of sulfide oxidation (Chapter 2) it was shown that the most likely forms of sulfur comprising the NSRS that enters the Wanneroo distribution system are organosulfur compounds and elemental sulfur, probably associated with organic matter in the form of a sulfur sol.Analysis of inorganic polysulfides in treated water, using the newly described method in Chapter 4, revealed that small ++
amounts of these compounds (20-80 ng/L) were occasionally present in some samples. However, it was concluded that, since inorganic polysulfides could not survive water treatment processes, these compounds probably arose from traces of biofilm or pipe sediment that may have entered the water during sampling. It was proposed that the presence of biofilm particulates in water samples probably also accounted for observations that DMTS appeared to form in some water samples during storage of the sample. These studies are discussed in Chapter 5.The primary method of control of DMTS formation in the distribution system has been to maintain free chlorine residuals. However, the mechanisms by which this occurs have not been studied; the effectiveness of DMTS oxidation by chlorine, or how chlorine affects microbial processes that might form DMTS is not known. These issues are addressed in the final section of Chapter 5. Experiments to determine the effectiveness of oxidation of dimethyldisulfide (DMDS) and DIVITS (5 mu g/L) by free chlorine (0.2 to 0.6 mg/L) in distributed water showed that these substances are rapidly and completely oxidised in water containing a chlorine residual of more than 0.4 mg/L. However, slow regeneration of traces of DMDS and DIVITS after dissipation of free chlorine to non-detectable levels showed that these compounds were incompletely oxidised at the lower chlorine concentrations~ This provides some rationale for field observations that DIVITS occurs even where low, but measurable, chlorine residuals appear to exist (<0.2 mg/L).As was established in a review of the chemistry of reduced sulfur compounds Chapter 2), reducing conditions not present in the oxic bulk water are required for DMTS to form and to persist. It was therefore proposed that microbial reduction processes could generate anoxic microniches in the distribution system, within which ++
DMTS production could occur. This hypothesis was investigated in Chapter 6; the new methods for analysis of organic and inorganic polysulfides were applied to the study of biofilms and deposits of colloidal material found in distribution pipes and storage reservoirs. The study demonstrated that these materials contained concentrations of methylated and inorganic polysulfides four to six orders of magnitude higher than those ever found in the bulk water phase. The results indicated that reducing conditions most probably exist within the biofilms and pipewall deposits, where these polysulfides were formed. The iron-rich pipe slimes appeared to protect the sulfur compounds against the oxidative effects of chlorine and dissolved oxygen. It was concluded that the organic and inorganic polysulfides most probably arise through microbial sulfate reduction processes that occur in anoxic microenvironments within the slimes and deposits.Microbial processes that lead to the formation of polysulfides and dimethylpolysuifides under conditions approximately representative of those in distribution systems were investigated in work described in Chapter 7. The aim of this work was to investigate the role of biofilms in the formation of DMTS and to determine the nature of chemical precursors which might stimulate these processes. Biofilms, artificially generated on synthetic supports within chambers filled with water from Wanneroo GWTP, were exposed to compounds thought to be potential DMTS precursors. The response of the systems in terms of production of methylated sulfur compounds was monitored. Conclusions of the study were that, under the test conditions, production of DMDS and DMTS could occur via several mechanisms and that these dimethyloligosulfides could be formed even without the addition of compounds containing sulfur or methyl moieties. DMTS did not form in the absence of ++
biofilms and it was therefore concluded that minimisation of biofilm activity was a key in preventing DMTS formation. Outcomes of the work imply that environments within distribution systems are complex and dynamic, as perhaps manifested by the intermittent nature of the DMTS problem.Finally, in Chapter 8 the conclusions to the present studies are summarised. It is shown how they underpin the rationale for proposed new treatment solutions aimed at preventing DMTS problems in the Wanneroo zone, primarily by minimising microbial activity and biofilm formation within distribution systems.

Thesis (M. Tech. (Environmental Health)) -- Central University of technology, Free State, 2013
Introduction: Drinking water of poor quality can cause a variety of diseases and may even result in death. The impact of poor drinking water is a course for concern even in South Africa. Therefore, the physical, chemical and microbiological drinking water quality was investigated in the peri-urban area of Bainsvlei and the Woodlands Hills Estate in Bloemfontein, Free State. Materials and Methods: The water quality was assessed in 20 identified sampling sites for three series with ten weeks apart. These sites use treated municipal and untreated borehole water for drinking. The determinants analysed for were pH, electrical conductivity (EC), turbidity, temperature, Ca, Mg, Na, F, Cl, N, SO₄,N, Free chlorine, Al, As, CN, Fe, Mn, Pb, Hg, total coliforms and E. coli. The water samples were collected and analysed on site and in the laboratory. Both the physical and chemical determinants were measured using standard methods whereas the microbiological determinants were measured using the Defined Substrate Technology (DST) method. The measurements were first compared to the SANS 241 (2011) for compliance. The ANOVA tests were used to investigate if any seasonal variations existed in the water quality as well as to compare the levels of the determinants between borehole and municipal water. In the assessment of the overall drinking water quality of different water sampling sites the water quality index (WQI) was used. Results and Discussions: Significant effects were believed to exist if the p-values of the ANOVA and Scheffe tests were at a significance level of 5% (p < 0.05). The study results revealed that of the four physical determinants that were measured turbidity exceeded the standard in many sampling sites in the three series. Of all the chemical determinants, nitrates exceeded the standard. In the same way coliforms exceeded the standard in a number of sampling sites while E. coli was found in a few sampling sites in the first series. ANOVA tests revealed that seasonal variations existed between pH, EC, temperature, cyanide and iron at a significant level of 5% (p < 0.05) while the Post-hoc Scheffe test further revealed the series in which the effect existed. Similarly, the ANOVA tests revealed that the levels of the determinants between municipal versus borehole varied in pH, EC, Ca, Mg, Na, F, Cl, N, and SO₄ at a significant level of 5% (p < 0.05). The WQI showed that in all the series when combining the good and excellent category season 2 had the highest percentage of 80%, followed by season 3 with 79% and season 1 with 70%. Only borehole sampling sites were found in the poor, very poor and unsuitable categories. Similarly all the highest WQI values were found in borehole sampling sites. Conclusion: This study revealed that the water quality is of good quality in the Bainsvlei and Woodlands Hills Estate of the Mangaung metropolitan municipality in Bloemfontein, in the Free State, South Africa. The presence of E. coli, though found in a few sampling sites and the high levels of turbidity, nitrates and coliforms are of concern to public health.

[Truncated abstract] This thesis explores the risk factors and perinatal outcomes associated with prelabour rupture of membranes, with a particular focus on the environmental context. Prelabour rupture of membranes is defined as the rupture of fetal membranes before the onset of labour. It is a relatively common obstetric endpoint, occurring in approximately 8-10% of pregnant women at term (PROM) and in up to 40% of all preterm deliveries (pPROM). Despite the high prevalence of the condition, the biological mechanisms and risk factors, and in particular the role of environmental predictors, behind the development of PROM and pPROM remain largely unclear. A record-based prevalence design was used to analyse a population of 16,229 nulliparous, Caucasian women residing in Perth, Western Australia who gave birth to a single newborn during 2002-2004. Maternal age, socioeconomic status and threatened preterm labour during pregnancy were identified as risk factors for prelabour rupture of membranes. Term PROM was significantly associated with fetal distress (OR 1.19; 95%CI 1.00-1.43) and post-partum haemorrhage (OR 1.99; 95%CI 1.60-2.48). A number of perinatal complications were observed to be associated with the presentation of preterm PROM, including prolapsed cord (OR 13.95; 95%CI 4.57-42.61), ante-partum haemorrhage (OR 3.29; 95%CI 2.20-4.91), post-partum haemorrhage (OR 2.12; 95%CI 1.54-2.91), low birth weight (OR 17.79; 95%CI 13.87-22.82), very low birth weight (OR 20.01; 95%CI 14.12-28.35) and stillbirth (OR 5.42; 95%CI 2.87-10.21). However, the outcomes were similar between pPROM patients and other preterm deliveries, indicating that the complications arose due to the timing of the delivery. In contrast though, the risk factors between the two outcomes varied which may suggest that a different aetiological pathway exists between preterm PROM and other preterm deliveries. The frequency of complications decreased with increasing gestational age at delivery until the pregnancy reached full-term, whereupon an increase in gestational age at delivery resulted in an increased risk of fetal distress and post-partum haemorrhage. This finding is novel and may have important implications for the management of prelabour rupture of membranes, specifically with regard to the relative risks and benefits of expectant management (that is, the patient is admitted to an obstetric facility or hospital and closely monitored) versus planned delivery. ... This study represents the first attempt to investigate the potential associations between environmental risk factors and prelabour rupture of membranes. The results of the thesis provide a substantial contribution to our knowledge on prelabour rupture of membranes, including findings of direct relevance to clinical practice as well as a potentially contributing environmental exposure pathway. These original findings suggest a possible preventative approach to reducing the occurrence and associated morbidity of prelabour rupture of membranes may be feasible, and should be pursued if future research confirms the preliminary findings of this thesis.

Elevated levels of arsenic and other heavy metals like copper, aluminum, zinc, and selenium in drinking water are found to have deleterious effects on human health. Hence, finding methods for reducing their levels is critical. Iron-coated limestone is used as an adsorption material for the removal of heavy metals from drinking water. Removal of heavy metals by native or uncoated limestone was also observed and used for comparison to and evaluation of the improvement in removal efficiency from the ironcoated material. The removal efficiency with limestone was studied for different concentrations of heavy metals. Kinetic studies were done to determine the decrease in heavy metal concentration as a function of time using limestone. Inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy was used for metal analysis. The effective removal rate of copper and aluminum was found to be four hours and one hour, respectively. This method of removal by using limestone is cost effective, eco-friendly, and hence, of great potential importance for heavy metal removal. Iron-coated limestone is used as an adsorption material for the removal of heavy metals from drinking water. This project will investigate techniques to improve removal efficiency of heavy metals using limestone-based material through adsorption. This research will assist in the development of a granular adsorbent product that will remove metals and that can be manufactured and sold for use at the drinking water source, at point-of-use, or at point-of-entry. Limestone is readily available and its use for metals removal is relatively inexpensive. The technology can be adapted to small, rural water supply systems. Benefits of this research will include a low-cost treatment technology for source reduction that will reduce select metals to below drinking water standards.

No presente trabalho estudou-se a qualidade de recursos hídricos na Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Ribeira de Iguape, localizada na região sudeste do estado de São Paulo. Esta é a única bacia no estado de São Paulo onde a relação disponibilidade de água versus demanda é extremamente positiva. Na região está localizada a maior concentração de Mata Atlântica do país. Atualmente, a agricultura é a principal atividade econômica, destacando-se as culturas do chá e da banana. Avaliou-se o impacto da atividade agrícola na qualidade da água por meio da caracterização da água em áreas de captação superficial e da água destinada ao abastecimento público. Realizou-se uma análise de risco do potencial de contaminação por agrotóxicos em águas superficiais e subterrâneas, analisando as características físico-químicas dos princípios ativos, dos produtos utilizados na região, relacionando-as com os aspectos básicos de meteorologia, hidrologia e características do solo. Realizaram-se 6 campanhas, sendo 5 campanhas no período de março de 2002 a fevereiro de 2003 e uma em janeiro de 2004, em 10 municípios situados ao longo do Rio Ribeira de Iguape e seus principais afluentes. Avaliaram-se os resíduos dos carbamatos (aldicarbe, carbofurano e carbaril), das triazinas (simazina e atrazina) e da nitroanilina (trifluralina) utilizando-se o método por extração em fase sólida e análise por cromatografia líquida de alta eficiência acoplada ao detector UV/visível (SPE-LC-UV/vis). Verificou-se que a qualidade da água está relacionada com os períodos de chuva e seca. No início do período chuvoso, observou-se um número maior de amostras positivas com os resíduos de agrotóxicos bem como maior variabilidade nos parâmetros físico-químicos, das amostras de água superficial, devido ao alto índice pluviométrico da região que aumenta a lixiviação do solo. Do total de 152 amostras analisadas somente 24% apresentaram resíduos agrotóxicos. Desenvolveu-se uma metodologia para determinação de carbamatos, atrazinas e triazinas por extração em fase sólida e análise por cromatografia líquida de alta eficiência acoplada ao detector espectrometria de massas Tandem (SPE-LC-MS/MS). O método mostrou-se eficiente na determinação destes compostos,apresentando ótima sensibilidade e seletividade. Aplicou-se o método nas amostras coletadas em janeiro de 2004 e devido a sua sensibilidade, o carbofurano foi identificado nas 20 amostras analisadas, sendo que em três das amostras de água tratada apresentou o produto de degradação, 3–OH–carbofurano. Verificou-se que a Bacia já apresenta indícios de uso de agrotóxico na agricultura, embora, as concentrações observadas não comprometam a qualidade da água para o abastecimento humano. Realizou-se uma avaliação crítica da legislação vigente pertinente (Portaria no 518/MS/04) e sua comparação com normas e legislações, tanto nacionais quanto internacionais. Discutiu-se a sua aplicação a partir de critérios tais como prazo legal de cumprimento, facilidade e dificuldades técnicas (análises físico-químicas, ensaios acreditados e logísticas) e custos.
This research was focused on the assessment of the water quality of Ribeira de Iguape River Basin, located in the Southeastern region of São Paulo State, where the ratio of water availability against demand is high. Reminiscent of Atlantic Forest represents high occupation of this area in Brazil. Agriculture is the main economic activity in the region, with tea and banana as the main crops. The impact of agricultural activities on the environment has been characterized in both the surface water areas of catchments and drinking water. For superficial and underground waters, risk analysis of the contamination by pesticides was carried out, correlating the physicochemical properties of the active compounds used in the region with some basic aspects of meteorology, hydrology and soil characteristics. Water samplings were carried out during the period March/2002 -February/2003, and during January/2004 in 10 different catchments points along River Ribeira de Iguape and its main tributaries. Solid-phase extraction followed by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with UV/Vis detection (SPE-LC-UV/vis) was used as an analytical method to monitor various classes of pesticides such as carbamates (aldicarb, carbofuran and carbaryl), triazines (simazine and atrazine), and nitroanilines (trifluralin). The results revealed that the water quality is associated with the season of rains and dries. Due to the high precipitation index in the beginning of the rainy season, pesticide residues were found in most samples, and high variability in their physicochemical properties was observed. Form 152 samples analyzed, only 24% showed the presence of pesticide. The specificity and sensitivity in the pesticides analyses was enhanced by a methodology employing solid-phase extraction followed by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (SPE-LC-MS/MS). Specifically, this method was applied to all samples collected in January of 2004. Carbofuran and its metabolite 3-OH-carbofuran were detected in 20 and three of the samples, respectively. Although the observed low pesticide concentrations should not compromise the water quality for drinking, the present work demonstrates the impact of pesticides use in agriculture. In a complementary study, the current guidelines for drinking-water standards (no 518/MS/04) were critically evaluated and discussed by comparing national and international rules and regulations. Technical applicability of the legislation, the difficulty to comply with the imposed deadlines, and the costs of attending such requisites has been further discussed, as well.

Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-04T12:42:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010
O uso intensivo de agrotóxicos tem suscitado a preocupação de profissionais de diversos setores, face aos riscos potenciais que essas substâncias trazem ao ambiente e aos seres humanos. Nesse contexto, a água consumida pelas populações pode ser uma importante forma de exposição. Os agrotóxicos constituem parâmetro preconizado no padrão de potabilidade nacional, expresso na Portaria MS nº 518, de 25 de março de 2004, mediante a indicação de valores máximos permitidos (VMP) para 23 substâncias. A última atualização formal do conteúdo dessa norma ocorreu em 2000 e, diante do crescimento da agroeconomia brasileira e, por conseguinte, do consumo dessas substâncias, o processo de revisão / reformulação do padrão nacional para os agrotóxicos torna-se imperativo. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é analisar a consistência do atual padrão de potabilidade brasileiro referente aos agrotóxicos. A metodologia do trabalho foi constituída de cinco etapas; a primeira apresenta uma análise comparativa entre o padrão brasileiro e os padrões de outros países. As quatro etapas seguintes foram conduzidas de forma associada às etapas da Metodologia de Avaliação de Risco. Os resultados apresentados indicaram a ausência de informações sistemáticas sobre o consumo de agrotóxicos no país, o que compromete o conhecimento da realidade nacional, em termos das substâncias mais utilizadas. A despeito dessa limitação, dados de 2005 / 2006 apontaram um panorama de uso de agrotóxicos centrado principalmente nos estados de São Paulo e Paraná, embora todos os estados da federação façam uso dessas substâncias; o padrão de potabilidade nacional para agrotóxicos tem sido definido, essencialmente, mediante os parâmetros e valores guias recomendados pela OMS e não considera algumas substâncias das classes dos inseticidas e fungicidas comuso expressivo, cujas características toxicológicas e potencial de contaminação das águas merecem atenção. A revisão / atualização do padrão de potabilidade para os agrotóxicos constitui parte importante de um processo mais amplo de revisão da legislação nacional. Dentre as diversas questões afetas à constante avaliação de risco dos agrotóxicos no padrão de potabilidade, ressalta-se a importância de que o Governo Federal e, com destaque o Ministério da Saúde, garanta a sustentabilidade financeira, operacional e de recursos humanos desse processo.
The intensive use of pesticides has got attention of professionals of different areas, regarding the potential hazard of these substances for environment and for human beings. In this context, the water for human intake can be an important form of exposure. The pesticides are recommended in the national standard for potability, expressed in Portaria MS nº 518/2004, of 25 March 2004, with the maximum permitted values indication (VMP) for 23 substances. The last update of that normative occurred in 2000 and, considering Brazilian agricultural business growth and, consequently, consumption of those substances, revision/reformulation of the national standard for pesticides becomes imperative. The main objective of this work is to analyze the current consistency of Brazilian standard for potability considering pesticides. The methodology was made up with five steps; the first present an analysis between Brazilian standard and other countries’ standards. Remain four were conducted with the steps of Risk Assessment Methodology. The results indicated a lack of systematic information about the usage of pesticides in the country, which undermines national knowledge of reality, in terms of more common used substances. Despite this limitation, 2005/2006 data indicated a panorama of use of pesticides is focused mainly in the states of São Paulo and Paraná, although all federation states make use of such substances; the national standard for potability has been set to pesticides essentially through the parameters and guide values recommended by WHO, and does not consider some substances from classes of insecticides and fungicides with expressive use and such toxicological characteristics and water contamination potential deserve attention. The revision/update of national standard for potability considering pesticides is an important part of a wide process of revision of national legislation. Among the various issues related to risk assessment with pesticides in standard for potability, emphasize the importance that the Federal Government and, in particular the Ministry of Health, ensure the human resources, financial and operational sustainability of this process.

碩士
國立屏東科技大學
土木工程系所
95
ANSI/AWWA C151/A21.51 was first international recognized drinking water ductile iron pipe standard since 1965. Since then, North America, European, and Asia regions developed their own standards for ductile iron pipes. Even these regional standards consist some similarity; however, unified ductile iron pipe standard is still unavailable up to now. The objective of this study is to investigate the difference between CNS and these international recognized standards for drinking water ductile iron pipes. The revised comments for the existing CNS standard are also provided. Dimensions, mechanical and hydraulic properties of CNS 10808, ISO 2531, BS EN545, ANSI/AWWA C151/21.51-02, and JIS G525 standards were investigated in the study. CNS and JIS are quite similar to each other. Each standard specifies its own pipe dimension and length based its needs. CNS, JIS, and AWWA standards provide detail dimensions for their joints and fittings. However, ISO, BS, and EN standards only require quality assurance test for each specified joint type. Asphalt exterior coating and cement mortar inner coating are required for all standards. T-type flexible joint is commonly accepted to be used in earthquake zone. The requirements for tensile strength and elongation at break, and hardness are similar for all standards. Pipe ductility should be evaluated by an impact test specified in AWWA standard. Graphite content exceeded 70% is only required by CNS standard. Static pressure test is required for each pipe for all standards.

M.Ing.
The modelling of water quality in distribution systems is a relatively new field. It has become necessary to attend to the problem of water quality at the consumer's tap because water quality after treatment is not a guarantee for the water that reaches the consumer. It is increasingly important to design and manage distribution systems carefully to ensure safe drinking water up to the consumer's tap. This report gives the results and a discussion thereof on the chlorine decay in laboratory batch tests as well as on pipeline systems. Significant contributions were made to the different objectives of the study. Standardised test procedures for both free chlorine and monochloramine were developed. It was found that the n th-order, 1 parameter model described the decay of chlorine significantly better than did the generally assumed first order mathematical model. It was also found that the reaction orders are different for different water sources, and even different for the same water source at different times. It was also clear that the rate constants are dependent on temperature - the higher the temperature, the higher the decay rate constants. The reaction order for free chlorine varied from 0.36 to 1.22 with no apparent underlying pattern. For monochloramine, the reaction order fell into two distinctively different categories. For monochloramine decay up to 24 hours, the reaction order varied from 0.02 to 0.05. For monochloramine decay from 24 hours onwards, the reaction order varied from 0.92 to 0.95. As was expected, the free chlorine decay rates obtained in pipelines were higher than in parallel bulk decay rate tests. On the assumption that the bulk decay reaction order is equal to one, the mass transfer coefficient between the bulk flow and the pipe wall varied between 0.0065 m/h and 0.0457 m/h. Further research is highly recommended on the effect of secondary and tertiary chlorination as well as on more direct methods of estimating pipe wall-related chlorine reaction constants.

Catchment management organisations often use computer-based water quality models to support their decision-making needs. However, literature suggests that model use by catchment managers can be highly problematical. Commonly reported issues that negatively impact upon the effectiveness of modelling for decision-making are data quality and availability, miscommunication between analysts and decision-makers, inappropriate treatment of uncertainty, excessive model complexity (‘sophistication’) or simplicity and poor modelling practice. The challenges that beset catchment managers are usually framed as technical problems that can be overcome by using or communicating the science that underlies the models more effectively. As a result, many of the problems associated with the use of models by catchment managers have not been adequately elucidated from the standpoint of a manager. This thesis examines the problem of modelling for decision-making from a fresh perspective. Systemic approaches to research are commonly used where the research problem is ill-defined, as it is here. ‘Action research’ is one qualitative, systemic methodology, and was used here as the guiding methodology to explore the model related problems faced by catchment managers. Action research involves recurrent cycles of planning, action, observation and reflection. The research was undertaken with the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA), a New South Wales government agency responsible for water quality and catchment health in the drinking water catchments of Sydney, Australia. The SCA had expressed a particular need for tools to support the assessment of development applications with respect to potential impacts on water quality, and to prioritise rural land for remedial action to improve water quality in the drinking water catchments. The research had two broad aims that were:1.to develop two models differing in sophistication, and to use them to prioritise nutrient pollution sources and calculate nutrient loads; And, through the participatory development of the models, 2.to learn methodological lessons that catchment managers can apply to choose and use models more effectively. In this research, action was in the form of five planned activities, including: i. a review of relevant literature from diverse disciplines; ii. the holding of two workshops; the first exclusively involving SCA managers to identify their modelling needs, and the second involving water quality scientists and modelers to discuss methods for meeting the modelling needs; iii. the development and use of two export coefficient nutrient models; iv. a focus group discussion involving key staff in the SCA; and v. a review of published guidelines for good modelling practice in environmental management. Note was also taken of statements or behaviour at numerous meetings and seminars, mostly with SCA staff, that were relevant to the research questions.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Reducing population exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs), a known carcinogen and highly toxic metalloid of great public health concern, remains an ongoing challenge worldwide and in the United States (US). In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for total arsenic in public drinking water supplies through the Safe Drinking Water Act. In 2001, the US EPA implemented the Final Arsenic Rule, which lowered the MCL for arsenic in public drinking water supplies from 50 to 10 µg/L. Reductions in iAs exposure and subsequent related disease associated with this important regulatory change have not been quantified. Currently, no national-level exposure estimates of iAs drinking water exposure are available for US residents reliant on public drinking water. There is a critical need to identify susceptible subgroups of the US population who remain at risk for elevated iAs drinking water exposure. This dissertation aimed to quantify the reduction in drinking water iAs exposure resulting from the US EPA MCL regulatory change, to estimate drinking water iAs exposure for US residents reliant on public drinking water, to identify susceptible subgroups across the US whose water iAs remains high, and to determine if iAs exposure was associated with heart disease mortality in the general US population. Chapter 1 provides background information necessary to contextualize the work contained in this dissertation. In Chapter 2, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis of dietary sources of iAs exposure in the Strong Heart Family Study, a cohort of American Indian adults followed primarily for cardiovascular disease, using a self-reported food frequency questionnaire and urinary iAs measurements. Self-reported intake of rice, organ meat, processed meat, and non-alcoholic drinks was associated with increased urinary iAs concentrations. Diet alone explained only 3% of total variability in urinary iAs concentrations, indicating that the majority of iAs exposure for SHFS participants occurs from drinking water. Second, (in Chapter 3), we explored trends in water iAs exposure in the general US population associated with the EPA’s MCL change using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2003-2014, separately for participants reliant on public drinking water vs. private well water (which is not subject to US EPA regulation). We estimated that implementation of the new US EPA MCL was associated with a 17% reduction in drinking water iAs exposure for all participants reliant on public drinking water; the corresponding reduction was 32% for Mexican-American participants. No reduction was observed for participants reliant on private wells. Third (in Chapter 4), we estimated drinking water iAs exposure at the community water system and county-level across the entire US from 2006-2011 using the US EPA’s Six Year Review of Contaminant Occurrence database. We estimated that nationwide public drinking water iAs concentrations decreased by 8.5% and 21.6% at the 80th and 99th percentiles of the water iAs distribution in accordance with the MCL implementation, with significant differences across US subgroups. Greater decreases in iAs concentrations were reported for systems reliant on groundwater, systems serving smaller populations, and systems in the Northeast, Central Midwest, and Southwestern regions of the US. Susceptible subgroups whose public drinking water iAs exposure remains high include populations served by small community water systems reliant on groundwater, communities in the Southwestern US, Semi-Urban, Hispanic communities, and Rural, American Indian communities. Fourth (in Chapter 5), we assessed six-year average arsenic concentrations in community water systems exclusively serving correctional facilities in the US (e.g. prisons, jails, detention centers) compared to other community water systems. Average arsenic concentrations were twice as high in correctional facility community water systems located in the Southwest (6.41 µg/L, 95% CI 3.48, 9.34) compared to all other community water systems in the Southwest (3.11 µg/L, 95% CI 2.97, 3.24). Over a quarter of correctional facility systems in the Southwest reported a six-year average arsenic concentration exceeding the 10 µg/L MCL. Persons incarcerated in the Southwestern US were at disproportionate risk of drinking water arsenic exposure and related disease from 2006-2011. Fifth (in Chapter 6), we multiply imputed urinary arsenic concentrations below the limit of detection (LOD) in NHANES 2003-2016 using a Bayesian Tobit regression model. Epidemiological analyses of urinary arsenic data in NHANES are limited by the relatively high analytical LODs and large proportion of participants with undetectable values. Distributions of urinary arsenic originally reported in NHANES, which replace values below the LOD with the LOD divided by the square root of two, likely overestimate iAs exposure at the lowest exposure levels and may introduce significant bias. Bayesian-multiply imputed datasets may improve the assessment of iAs exposure in cohorts with high analytical LODs for arsenic species. Finally (in Chapter 7), we evaluated the association between urinary iAs concentrations (internal dose) and heart disease mortality as recorded in the National Death Index in NHANES 2003-2014 participants. We found a positive but non-significant prospective association between increasing iAs exposure and heart disease mortality for all participants (hazard ratio 1.15, 95% CI 0.77, 1.70), and a significant positive association for non-Hispanic white participants using flexible spline models. Geometric mean ratios of iAs exposure were higher among cases compared to non-cases, especially for Mexican-American participants (1.30, 95% CI 0.90, 1.88). These findings further support the potential association between low- to moderate- iAs exposure and cardiovascular disease in the US population, and indicate that further high-quality prospective studies of Hispanic and Latino Americans are needed to investigate the potential increased susceptibility of Mexican-Americans to iAs-related cardiovascular disease. Taken together, these studies suggest that while the implementation of the US EPA’s 10 µg/L MCL has reduced drinking water arsenic exposure for many Americans reliant on public drinking water systems, these reductions were not uniform across all US populations. Populations who remain at risk of elevated drinking water arsenic exposure include those reliant on domestic wells, those located in the Southwest, persons incarcerated in the Southwest, tribal communities, and Hispanic communities. Further high-quality epidemiologic research is needed to evaluate the association between low- to moderate iAs exposure and cardiovascular disease in these populations. Stronger federal regulations, targeted compliance enforcement and technical assistance, and other public health interventions are needed to reduce drinking water arsenic exposure in these communities.

D. Tech. Water care.
Groundwater is the main source of drinking in most rural areas of South Africa and is supplied to the communities without prior treatment. However, the contamination of groundwater sources by pathogenic bacteria poses a public health concern to these communities. This study was aimed at developing and evaluating the effectiveness of filter materials coated with silver nanoparticles for the removal of pathogenic microorganisms from groundwater as well as the inhibition of biofilm formation in drinking water systems.

MPH
Department of Public Health
Water quality of drinking water has been linked to good health outcomes across the world. The aim of this study was to assess physico-chemical, bacteriological, community practices regarding collection and storage of water and evaluation of human health risk characteristics of drinking water supplied by the government to Lufule village in Thulamela municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa A cross-sectional study was conducted using questionnaires and interviews to determine drinking water handling practices and levels of contamination between the source and point-of-use at household. Assessment of water quality was carried out on 114 samples from selected sampling points using scientifically approved protocols. Total coliform was determined in 62.5% and 87.5% of the samples during the dry and wet seasons respectively. Similarly, E. coli was determined in 10.4 % and 13.2% in the dry and wet seasons, respectively. Trace metals levels in the drinking water samples were analysed and were within permissible range of both SANS and WHO. The calculated non-carcinogenic effects using hazard quotient toxicity potential, cumulative hazard index and chronic daily intake of drinking water through ingestion pathways were less than one unity, which showed that consumption of the water could pose little or no significant health risk. The results of this research suggest that lead has the potential of cancer risk to the residents through the cumulative ingestion in the drinking water samples of the studied area. Therefore, precaution needs to be taken to avoid potential risk of people in Lufule area especially, children.
NRF