Contaminants in drinking water
Open Access
- 1 December 2003
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in British Medical Bulletin
- Vol. 68 (1), 199-208
- https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldg027
Abstract
An adequate supply of safe drinking water is one of the major prerequisites for a healthy life, but waterborne disease is still a major cause of death in many parts of the world, particularly in children, and it is also a significant economic constraint in many subsistence conomies. The basis on which drinking water safety is judged is national standards or international guidelines. The most important of these are the WHO Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality. The quality of drinking water and possible associated health risks vary throughout the world with some regions showing, for example, high levels of arsenic, fluoride or contamination of drinking water by pathogens, whereas elsewhere these are very low and no problem. Marked variations also occur on a more local level within countries due, for example, to agricultural and industrial activities. These and others are discussed in this chapter.Keywords
This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- ARE PROBLEMS WITH MALE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CAUSED BY ENDOCRINE DISRUPTION?Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2001
- Uptake of chlorination disinfection by-products; a review and a discussion of its implications for exposure assessment in epidemiological studiesJournal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 2000
- Chlorination disinfection byproducts in water and their association with adverse reproductive outcomes: a reviewOccupational and Environmental Medicine, 2000
- Infantile methemoglobinemia: reexamining the role of drinking water nitrates.Environmental Health Perspectives, 1999
- SeleniumJournal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology, 1999
- Waterborne disease epidemiology and ecologyPublic Health, 1998
- Cryptosporidiosis-associated mortality following a massive waterborne outbreak in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.American Journal of Public Health, 1997
- Health Implications of Nitrate and Nitrite in Drinking Water: An Update on Methemoglobinemia Occurrence and Reproductive and Developmental ToxicityRegulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 1996
- An outbreak of cryptosporidiosis associated with a resort swimming poolEpidemiology and Infection, 1995
- A Massive Outbreak in Milwaukee of Cryptosporidium Infection Transmitted through the Public Water SupplyNew England Journal of Medicine, 1994