Water Safety Plans (WSPs), as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), can help drinking water suppliers to identify potential hazards related to drinking water and enable improvements in public health outcomes. In this study we propose a procedure to evaluate the health risk related to turbidity in finished water by determining the cases of drinking water-related gastrointestinal diseases. The results of several epidemiological studies and three-year time series turbidity data, coming from three different drinking water treatment plants (WTPs) located in Tuscany (Italy), have been used to determine the relationship between drinking water turbidity and gastroenteritis incidence and to assess the health risk attributable to the turbidity of tap water. The turbidity variation occurring in the treated water during the monitored period showed an incremental risk compared to the baseline value from 9% to 27% in the three WTPs. Risk reduction due to each treatment step was also evaluated and it was found that a complete treatment train (clari-flocculation, sand filtration, activated carbon filtration and multi-step disinfection) reduces risk by over 600 times. Our approach is a useful tool for water suppliers to quantify health risks by considering time series data on turbidity at WTPs and to make decisions regarding risk management measures.
Water safety plans and risk assessment: A novel procedure applied to treated water turbidity and gastrointestinal diseases / Muoio R.; Caretti C.; Rossi L.; Santianni D.; Lubello C.. - In: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYGIENE AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH. - ISSN 1438-4639. - STAMPA. - 223:(2020), pp. 281-288. [10.1016/j.ijheh.2019.07.008]
Water safety plans and risk assessment: A novel procedure applied to treated water turbidity and gastrointestinal diseases
Muoio R.;Caretti C.;Lubello C.
2020
Abstract
Water Safety Plans (WSPs), as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), can help drinking water suppliers to identify potential hazards related to drinking water and enable improvements in public health outcomes. In this study we propose a procedure to evaluate the health risk related to turbidity in finished water by determining the cases of drinking water-related gastrointestinal diseases. The results of several epidemiological studies and three-year time series turbidity data, coming from three different drinking water treatment plants (WTPs) located in Tuscany (Italy), have been used to determine the relationship between drinking water turbidity and gastroenteritis incidence and to assess the health risk attributable to the turbidity of tap water. The turbidity variation occurring in the treated water during the monitored period showed an incremental risk compared to the baseline value from 9% to 27% in the three WTPs. Risk reduction due to each treatment step was also evaluated and it was found that a complete treatment train (clari-flocculation, sand filtration, activated carbon filtration and multi-step disinfection) reduces risk by over 600 times. Our approach is a useful tool for water suppliers to quantify health risks by considering time series data on turbidity at WTPs and to make decisions regarding risk management measures.I documenti in FLORE sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.