KWR Watercycle Research Institute, P.O. Box 1072, 3430 BB Nieuwegein, The Netherlands.
Water Res. 2013 Mar 15;47(4):1666-78. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2012.12.025. Epub 2012 Dec 25.
Ongoing pollution and improving analytical techniques reveal more and more anthropogenic substances in drinking water sources, and incidentally in treated water as well. In fact, complete absence of any trace pollutant in treated drinking water is an illusion as current analytical techniques are capable of detecting very low concentrations. Most of the substances detected lack toxicity data to derive safe levels and have not yet been regulated. Although the concentrations in treated water usually do not have adverse health effects, their presence is still undesired because of customer perception. This leads to the question how sensitive analytical methods need to become for water quality screening, at what levels water suppliers need to take action and how effective treatment methods need to be designed to remove contaminants sufficiently. Therefore, in the Netherlands a clear and consistent approach called 'Drinking Water Quality for the 21st century (Q21)' has been developed within the joint research program of the drinking water companies. Target values for anthropogenic drinking water contaminants were derived by using the recently introduced Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) approach. The target values for individual genotoxic and steroid endocrine chemicals were set at 0.01 μg/L. For all other organic chemicals the target values were set at 0.1 μg/L. The target value for the total sum of genotoxic chemicals, the total sum of steroid hormones and the total sum of all other organic compounds were set at 0.01, 0.01 and 1.0 μg/L, respectively. The Dutch Q21 approach is further supplemented by the standstill-principle and effect-directed testing. The approach is helpful in defining the goals and limits of future treatment process designs and of analytical methods to further improve and ensure the quality of drinking water, without going to unnecessary extents.
持续的污染和分析技术的进步揭示了越来越多的人为物质存在于饮用水源中，而且在处理水中也偶然存在。事实上，处理后的饮用水中完全没有任何痕量污染物是一种错觉，因为当前的分析技术能够检测到非常低的浓度。大多数被检测到的物质缺乏毒性数据来推导安全水平，而且尚未受到监管。尽管处理水中的浓度通常不会对健康产生不良影响，但由于客户的看法，它们的存在仍然是不受欢迎的。这就引出了一个问题，即水质筛选需要多灵敏的分析方法，供水商需要在什么水平上采取行动，以及需要设计多么有效的处理方法才能充分去除污染物。因此，在荷兰，供水公司联合研究计划内开发了一种名为“21 世纪饮用水质量（Q21）”的清晰一致的方法。人为饮用水污染物的目标值是通过最近引入的毒理学关注阈值（TTC）方法推导出来的。个别遗传毒性和类固醇内分泌化学物质的目标值设定为 0.01μg/L。对于所有其他有机化学品，目标值设定为 0.1μg/L。遗传毒性化学物质总(sum)、类固醇激素总(sum)和所有其他有机化合物总(sum)的目标值分别设定为 0.01、0.01 和 1.0μg/L。荷兰 Q21 方法进一步补充了停顿原则和效应导向测试。该方法有助于定义未来处理工艺设计和分析方法的目标和限制，以进一步提高和确保饮用水质量，而不会过度。
