Drinking water produced by conventional surface
water treatment plants with typical levels of Cryptosporidium
oocysts in source waters might put
public health at risk. This study proves that oocysts that
break through the treatment barriers could be alive and
infectious under in vitro human cell culture conditions.
Studies have shown that surface source waters and
finished drinking water might be contaminated with
Cryptosporidium oocysts. However none of the methods
used in these studies, nor the currently approved US
Environmental Protection Agency diagnostic techniques
for compliance testing, are able to determine the public
health significance of the results because those methods
do not measure the infectivity of C. parvum.
The study presented in this article showed that
90% of the finished water samples positive for Cryptosporidium
occurred in filtered drinking water samples
with low turbidities and that microbial indicators
such as Bacillus, Clostridium, and phage were
not associated with Cryptosporidium occurrence.
Because none of the parameters analyzed could
account for the occurrence of infectious
Cryptosporidium in the treated water, it was concluded
that conventional treatment plants are at risk
for breakthrough of infectious oocysts. As a result of
this study, the authors recommend that treatment
should be improved using alternative disinfection
techniques to preserve public health. Includes 36 references, tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. 96 - No. 9 |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 250 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 11 |
| Published : | 09/01/2004 |
