Drinking Water Contaminants

Drinking Water Contaminants

Drinking Water Contaminants

Introduction

Safe drinking water is everyone's responsibility. Proper management of water supplies drinking water source to the consumer's tap requires a lot of knowledge and coordination by the various stakeholders - including governments, businesses and individuals as you and me. A proportion of gastro-enteritis attributed to the presence of micro organisms is associated with consumption of drinking water. Chemical contamination of drinking water can also affect the health of the population (Stewart and Howell, 2003). The water that is consumed must be of good quality to avoid the risk of disease, whether from an individual well or what is distributed through a distribution network of drinking water.

Drinking water contaminants

The limits for particular contaminants, such as E. coli, which indicates the presence of microbiological pathogens, are very clear and should never be exceeded, because people get sick shortly after drinking contaminated water (Richards, 2008). Other recommendations, like those for many chemical contaminants, are based on best available scientific evidence in the matter and give a good indication of health effects that could affect people for decades, consuming large amounts of this contaminant in drinking water. The extent of exposure to contaminants is essential in the approach to assessing the health risk associated with exposure to environmental contaminants (Kenneth, 2007). In this regard, pharmacokinetic modeling is a useful tool whose usefulness is recognized internationally by researchers and managers of environmental health. Pharmacokinetic models allow, among other things, assess or predict the exposure of individuals, particularly internal exposure (internal dose) that is better linked to the deleterious effects of contaminants, and to study the impact of a host of factors (e.g. physiological, kinetic) to the internal dose caused by exposure (Richards, 2008).

Recent events have highlighted the vulnerability of drinking water sources and the news constantly reminds us that this resource should be protected to preserve its quality and thus ensure a safe water supply from the viewpoint of public health. If we know well enough today to microbiological hazards and ways to control the situation is less clear regarding the risks associated with chemical contamination. Indeed, there are still gray areas due to lack of knowledge about the particular long-term effects related to the many drinking water contaminants, the contribution of different routes of exposure based on various uses of water, and their combined action on the body (Kenneth, 2007).

The objective of the research theme "Water Contaminants and drinking pharmacokinetic modeling is to support and encourage collaboration among ...