Abstract
Contaminants in drinking water are a major contributor to the human exposome and adverse health effects. Assessing drinking water exposure accurately in health studies is challenging, as several of the following study design domains should be addressed as adequately as possible. In this paper, we identify the domains Time, Space, Data Quality, Data Accessibility, economic considerations of Study Size, and Complex Mixtures. We present case studies for three approaches or technologies that address these domains differently in the context of exposure assessment of drinking water quality: regulated contaminants in monitoring databases, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS)-based wide-scope chemical analysis, and effect-based bioassay methods. While none of these approaches address all the domains sufficiently, together they have the potential to carry out exposure assessments that would complement each other and could advance the state-of-science towards more accurate risk analysis. The aim of our study is to give researchers investigating health effects of drinking water quality the impetus to consider how their exposure assessments relate to the above-mentioned domains and whether it would be worthwhile to integrate the advanced technologies presented into planned risk analyses. We highly suggest this three-pronged approach should be further evaluated in health risk analyses, especially epidemiological studies concerning contaminants in drinking water. The state of the knowledge regarding potential benefits of these technologies, especially when applied in tandem, provides more than sufficient evidence to support future research to determine the implications of combining the approaches described in our case studies in terms of protection of public health.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 6 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $43.17 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Environmental Risk Assessment of Per- and Polyflouroalkyl Substances (PFAS). SETAC North America Focused Topic Meeting 12–15 August 2019, Durham, NC, USA. pfas.setac.org
References
Hempel S. John Snow. Lancet. 2013;381:1269–70.
Nuckols JR, Ashley DL, Lyu C, Gordon SM, Hinckley AF, Singer P. Influence of tap water quality and household water use activities on indoor air and internal dose levels of trihalomethanes. Environ Health Perspect. 2005;113:863–70.
Gomes IB, Maillard J-Y, Simões LC, Simões M. Emerging contaminants affect the microbiome of water systems—strategies for their mitigation. npj Clean Water. 2020;3:39.
Valbonesi P, Profita M, Vasumini I, Fabbri E. Contaminants of emerging concern in drinking water: Quality assessment by combining chemical and biological analysis. Sci Total Environ. 2021;758:143624.
Levallois P, Villanueva C. Drinking water quality and human health: an editorial. IJERPH. 2019;16:631.
Altenburger R, Brack W, Burgess RM, Busch W, Escher BI, Focks A, et al. Future water quality monitoring: improving the balance between exposure and toxicity assessments of real-world pollutant mixtures. Environ Sci Eur. 2019;31:12.
World Health Organization. Guidelines for drinking-water quality: fourth edition incorporating first addendum. 4th ed + 1st add. World Health Organization: Geneva, 2017 https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/254637 (accessed 25 Feb2023).
Ljung K, Vahter M. Time to re-evaluate the guideline value for manganese in drinking water? Environ Health Perspect. 2007;115:1533–8.
Thomsen, R. Borearkivets digitalisering i Aarhus Amt. Geologisk Tidsskrift 2023, 1–5. København. https://2dgf.dk/publikationer/geologisk-tidsskrift/.
Schullehner J. Danish Water Supply Areas and their links to water production facilities: an open-access data set. GEUS Bull. 2022; 49. https://doi.org/10.34194/geusb.v49.8319.
Schullehner J, Thygesen M, Kristiansen SM, Hansen B, Pedersen CB, Dalsgaard S. Exposure to manganese in drinking water during childhood and association with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a nationwide cohort study. Environ Health Perspect. 2020;128:097004.
Schullehner J, Hansen B, Thygesen M, Pedersen CB, Sigsgaard T. Nitrate in drinking water and colorectal cancer risk: A nationwide population-based cohort study: Nitrate in drinking water and CRC. Int J Cancer. 2018;143:73–79.
Horsdal HT, Pedersen MG, Schullehner J, Østergaard CS, Mcgrath JJ, Agerbo, E, et al. Perspectives on environment and health research in Denmark. Scand J Public Health 2023; Online First, 140349482311780. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14034948231178076.
Haddad N, Andrianou XD, Makris KC. A scoping review on the characteristics of human exposome studies. Curr Pollut Rep. 2019;5:378–93.
Menger F, Gago-Ferrero P, Wiberg K, Ahrens L. Wide-scope screening of polar contaminants of concern in water: a critical review of liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry-based strategies. Trends Environ Anal Chem. 2020;28:e00102.
Sabater S, Elosegi A, Ludwig R. Framing biophysical and societal implications of multiple stressor effects on river networks. Sci Total Environ. 2021;753:141973.
Postigo C, Andersson A, Harir M, Bastviken D, Gonsior M, Schmitt-Kopplin P, et al. Unraveling the chemodiversity of halogenated disinfection by-products formed during drinking water treatment using target and non-target screening tools. J Hazard Mater. 2021;401:123681.
Munné A, Solà C, Ejarque E, Sanchís J, Serra P, Corbella I, et al. Indirect potable water reuse to face drought events in Barcelona city. Setting a monitoring procedure to protect aquatic ecosystems and to ensure a safe drinking water supply. Sci Total Environ. 2023;866:161339.
López-Serna R, Postigo C, Blanco J, Pérez S, Ginebreda A, de Alda ML, et al. Assessing the effects of tertiary treated wastewater reuse on the presence emerging contaminants in a Mediterranean river (Llobregat, NE Spain). Environ Sci Pollut Res. 2012;19:1000–12.
Rubiano M-E, Agulló-Barceló M, Casas-Mangas R, Jofre J, Lucena F. Assessing the effects of tertiary treated wastewater reuse on a Mediterranean river (Llobregat, NE Spain), part III: pathogens and indicators. Environ Sci Pollut Res. 2012;19:1026–32.
Sanchís J, Gernjak W, Munné A, Catalán N, Petrovic M, Farré MJ. Fate of N-nitrosodimethylamine and its precursors during a wastewater reuse trial in the Llobregat River (Spain). J Hazard Mater. 2021;407:124346.
Aalizadeh R, Nikolopoulou V, Alygizakis N, Slobodnik J, Thomaidis NS. A novel workflow for semi-quantification of emerging contaminants in environmental samples analyzed by LC-HRMS. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2022;414:7435–50.
Escher BI, Stapleton HM, Schymanski EL. Tracking complex mixtures of chemicals in our changing environment. Science. 2020;367:388–92.
Escher BI, van Daele C, Dutt M, Tang JYM, Altenburger R. Most oxidative stress response in water samples comes from unknown chemicals: the need for effect-based water quality trigger values. Environ Sci Technol. 2013;47:7002–11.
Yu M, Lavonen E, Oskarsson A, Lundqvist J. Removal of oxidative stress and genotoxic activities during drinking water production by ozonation and granular activated carbon filtration. Environ Sci Eur. 2021;33:124.
Oskarsson A, Rosenmai AK, Mandava G, Johannisson A, Holmes A, Tröger R, et al. Assessment of source and treated water quality in seven drinking water treatment plants by in vitro bioassays – Oxidative stress and antiandrogenic effects after artificial infiltration. Sci Total Environ. 2021;758:144001.
Tröger R, Köhler SJ, Franke V, Bergstedt O, Wiberg K. A case study of organic micropollutants in a major Swedish water source – Removal efficiency in seven drinking water treatment plants and influence of operational age of granulated active carbon filters. Sci Total Environ. 2020;706:135680.
Ferraro PJ, Prasse C. Reimagining safe drinking water on the basis of twenty-first-century science. Nat Sustain. 2021;4:1032–7.
Alygizakis NA, Oswald P, Thomaidis NS, Schymanski EL, Aalizadeh R, Schulze T, et al. NORMAN digital sample freezing platform: A European virtual platform to exchange liquid chromatography high resolution-mass spectrometry data and screen suspects in “digitally frozen” environmental samples. TrAC Trends Anal Chem. 2019;115:129–37.
Jensen AS, Coffman VR, Schullehner J, Trabjerg BB, Pedersen CB, Hansen B, et al. Prenatal exposure to tap water containing nitrate and the risk of small-for-gestational-age: a nationwide register-based study of Danish births, 1991–2015. Environ Int. 2023;174:107883.
Stayner LT, Jensen AS, Schullehner J, Coffman VR, Trabjerg BB, Olsen J, et al. Nitrate in drinking water and risk of birth defects: Findings from a cohort study of over one million births in Denmark. Lancet Regional Health - Eur. 2022;14:100286.
Coffman VR, Jensen AS, Trabjerg BB, Pedersen CB, Hansen B, Sigsgaard T, et al. Prenatal exposure to nitrate from drinking water and markers of fetal growth restriction: a population-based study of nearly one million Danish-Born children. Environ Health Perspect. 2021;129:027002.
Coffman VR, Søndergaard Jensen A, Trabjerg BB, Pedersen CB, Hansen B, Sigsgaard T, et al. Prenatal exposure to nitrate from drinking water and the risk of preterm birth: a Danish nationwide cohort study. Environ Epidemiol. 2022;6:e223.
Stayner LT, Schullehner J, Semark BD, Jensen AS, Trabjerg BB, Pedersen M, et al. Exposure to nitrate from drinking water and the risk of childhood cancer in Denmark. Environ Int. 2021;155:106613.
Neale P, Leusch F, Escher B, Bioanalytical Tools in Water Quality Assessment: Second Edition. IWA Publishing, 2021. https://doi.org/10.2166/9781789061987.
California State Water Resources Control Board. Water Quality Control Policy for Recycled Water. 2023. https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/recycled_water/policy.html (accessed 24 May2023).
Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Directive 2000/60/EC establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy, Directive 2006/118/EC on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration and Directive 2008/105/EC on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy. 2022 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52022PC0540.
Jones RR, Stavreva DA, Weyer PJ, Varticovski L, Inoue-Choi M, Medgyesi DN, et al. Pilot study of global endocrine disrupting activity in Iowa public drinking water utilities using cell-based assays. Sci Total Environ. 2020;714:136317.
Hu XC, Andrews DQ, Lindstrom AB, Bruton TA, Schaider LA, Grandjean P, et al. Detection of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in U.S. drinking water linked to industrial sites, military fire training areas, and wastewater treatment plants. Environ Sci Technol Lett. 2016;3:344–50.
Hu XC, Tokranov AK, Liddie J, Zhang X, Grandjean P, Hart JE, et al. Tap water contributions to plasma concentrations of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in a nationwide prospective cohort of U.S. women. Environ Health Perspect. 2019;127:067006.
Kotlarz N, McCord J, Collier D, Lea CS, Strynar M, Lindstrom AB, et al. Measurement of novel, drinking water-associated PFAS in blood from adults and children in Wilmington, North Carolina. Environ Health Perspect. 2020;128:077005.
Zhou W, Zhao S, Tong C, Chen L, Yu X, Yuan T, et al. Dietary intake, drinking water ingestion and plasma perfluoroalkyl substances concentration in reproductive aged Chinese women. Environ Int. 2019;127:487–94.
Soriano MA, Siegel HG, Johnson NP, Gutchess KM, Xiong B, Li Y, et al. Assessment of groundwater well vulnerability to contamination through physics-informed machine learning. Environ Res Lett. 2021;16:084013.
United Nations. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 28 July 2010 64/292. The human right to water and sanitation. 2010.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the organizers (Dr Cristina Villanueva and Dr Nicole C. Deziel) and participants of the workshop “Advancing the Science for Drinking Water Chemical Exposure Assessment and Health Research”, held at ISGlobal Barcelona 15-16 September 2022, in which JS, DC, PGF and JRN participated and which was the initiation of this collaborative work.
Funding
No financial assistance was received in support of this study. PGF acknowledges his Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC2019-027913-I) from the AEI-MICI. JS is supported by BERTHA—the Danish Big Data Center for Environment and Health funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation Challenge Programme (grant NNF17OC0027864).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
JS, PGF and JRN conceived the idea. DS conducted the literature search. JS and DC wrote the original draft, case studies were written by JS (1), PGF (2) and JL (3). JRN served as senior advisor/editor and contributed to the Discussion section. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
JL is a co-founder and owner of BioCell Analytica Uppsala AB, a company providing effect-based testing services to the water sector. The other authors report no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Schullehner, J., Cserbik, D., Gago-Ferrero, P. et al. Integrating different tools and technologies to advance drinking water quality exposure assessments. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 34, 108–114 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-023-00588-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-023-00588-0
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Assessing exposure and health consequences of chemicals in drinking water in the 21st Century
Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology (2024)