Yates Marylynn V
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, USA.
Water Environ Res. 2007 Mar;79(3):279-86. doi: 10.2175/106143006x123085.
Indicators have been used for many years to designate the microbiological quality of water. In 1914, the U.S. Public Health Service set a standard that required that drinking water show no evidence of coliform organisms (U.S. Treasury Department, 1914). Today, almost 100 years later, drinking waters in the United States must meet the standards established in the Total Coliform Rule, which requires that drinking water show no evidence of the presence of total coliform bacteria in 100 mL of water (U.S. EPA, 1989). However, as limitations with the use of coliforms have become apparent and the applications for indicator microorganisms have expanded, new indicators have been proposed and, in some cases, adopted, for specific purposes, as discussed in detail in a number of recent reports (i.e., National Research Council, 2004; World Health Organization, 2003).
多年来，指标一直被用于确定水的微生物质量。1914年，美国公共卫生服务局制定了一项标准，要求饮用水中不存在大肠菌群（美国财政部，1914年）。如今，将近100年后，美国的饮用水必须符合《总大肠菌群规则》中规定的标准，该标准要求在100毫升水中不存在总大肠菌群细菌（美国环境保护局，1989年）。然而，随着大肠菌群使用的局限性日益明显，以及指示微生物的应用范围不断扩大，新的指标已被提出，并且在某些情况下已被采用用于特定目的，正如一些近期报告中详细讨论的那样（即美国国家研究委员会，2004年；世界卫生组织，2003年）。
