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Given hundreds of natural and human-made chemical agents in water to which peoplearound the world could be exposed, a critical issue for maintaining healthful watersupplies for the future is to determine "safe" exposure levels. Regulatory guidelinesdesigned by law to protect health and welfare have been the governmental foundation andbasis for establishing safe exposure levels. For example, for noncarcinogenic or systemiceffects, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops reference doses and the State of California develops PublicHealth Goals. As part of the process of setting regulatory guidelines, agencies generallyincorporate scientific information about the potential for health effects or exposure.However, each agency also applies policy components that can have the unintendedeffect of weakening the guideline's scientific validity and transparency. This paperoutlines current methods used to establish "safe" drinking water levels, and offersalternatives that incorporate current science to yield "safe" levels with improvedcertainty, transparency and reproducibility yet are still health protective. As an example,a method of assessing pharmaceutical agents in drinking water is presented. Includes abstract only.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 06/17/2005 Number of Pages: 1File Size: 1 file , 230 KB