Microbiological standards for water and their relationship to health risk

Barrell, R.A., Hunter, P.R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5608-6144 and Nichols, G. (2000) Microbiological standards for water and their relationship to health risk. Communicable disease and public health / PHLS, 3 (1). pp. 8-13.

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Abstract

Maintenance of the microbiological quality of water has been used as an important means of preventing waterborne disease throughout the twentieth century. The commonest microbiological tests done on water are for coliforms and Escherichia coli (or faecal coliform). This paper reviews the legislative and other guidance for microbial standards in drinking and bathing waters and considers evidence for the relationship between the microbiological quality of water and risk to human health. In the past measures of the microbiological quality of water correlated well with risks of acquiring gastrointestinal disease. More recent work suggests that gastrointestinal disease is more strongly associated with the presence of enterococci than of E. coli. New diseases such as cryptosporidiosis have been shown to cause outbreaks of waterborne disease when levels of conventional microbiological parameters are satisfactory. In response to this, and because of failure of prosecution in one outbreak, the United Kingdom (UK) Government has introduced new legislation that requires water providers to perform a risk assessment on their water treatment facilities and to implement continuous monitoring for cryptosporidium. A new European directive on drinking water has been introduced and legislation on cryptosporidium in drinking water has been proposed in the UK.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Water Security Research Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research (former - to 2023) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Population Health
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	28 Feb 2022 12:30
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2023 03:16
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/83756
DOI:

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