The revision of the national standards for drinking water quality is an important, rigorous and delicate endeavor. The paper introduced the revision of this standard, emphasizing the revision principle, overall technical considerations, and revision contents. Recommendations were also proposed for the implementation of this standard.
Humans ; Drinking Water ; Water Quality ; Reference Standards ; China ; Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis* ; Water Supply

The radioactive safety of drinking water has attracted increasing public concern. The newly issued Standards for Drinking Water Quality (GB5749-2022) in China has revised the radiological parameters. This article provides an overview of the main sources, levels of radionuclides in drinking water, and summarized the individual doses criterion and adverse health effects associated with exposure of the public to radionuclides from drinking-water. It analyzes and discusses the relevant revision content of radiological parameters, including the guidance values for screening gross α and gross β, subtracting the contribution of potassium-40 from gross β activity when the gross β activity concentration exceeds the screening level, and the basis for establishing the limit values of reference indices uranium and radium-226. Specific implementation and evaluation suggestions are also proposed.
Humans ; China ; Drinking Water ; Radioisotopes/analysis* ; Uranium/analysis* ; Water Supply

The establishment of limit values for standards of drinking water quality is an important and complex process. This study systematically introduced the methodology of the establishment of standard limit values for drinking water quality and elaborated on the workflow of setting limit values of water quality indicators, principles and methods of selecting water quality indicators, derivation of safety reference values, and establishment of limit values. It also aimed to provide reference and support for the future revision of relevant standards.
Humans ; Water Supply ; Drinking Water ; Reference Standards ; Water Quality ; Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis*

BACKGROUND: To protect the health and safety of healthcare workers (HCWs), it is essential to ensure the provision of sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services and standard precautions in healthcare facilities (HCF). The objectives of this short communication were 1) to assess the availability of WASH services and standard precautions in HCFs in seven provinces in Afghanistan before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2) to elucidate the relevance of these patterns with the number of reported HCW infections from COVID-19 in the mentioned provinces. METHODS: We analyzed secondary data from the 2018-19 Afghanistan Service Provision Assessment survey, which included 142 public and private HCFs in seven major provinces in Afghanistan. Data on COVID-19 cases were obtained from the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health Data Warehouse. Weighted prevalence of WASH services and standard precautions were calculated using frequencies and percentages. ArcGIS maps were used to visualize the distribution of COVID-19 cases, and scatter plots were created to visualize the relevance of WASH services and standard precautions to COVID-19 cases in provinces. RESULTS: Of the 142 facilities surveyed, about 97% had improved water sources, and over 94% had improved toilet for clients. Overall, HCFs had limited availability of hygiene services and standard precautions, which was lower in private than public facilities. More than half of the facilities had safe final disposal and appropriate storage of sharps and medical waste. Of the seven provinces, Herat province had the highest cumulative COVID-19 case rate among HCWs per 100,000 population and reported lower availability of WASH services and standard precautions in HCFs compared to other provinces. CONCLUSION Our findings show disparities in the availability of WASH services and standard precautions in public and private facilities. Private facilities had a lower availability of hygiene services and standard precautions than public facilities. Provinces with higher availability of WASH services and standard precautions in HCFs had a lower cumulative COVID-19 case rate among HCWs per 100,000 population. Pre-pandemic preparation of adequate WASH services and standard precautions in HCFs could be potentially important in combating infectious disease emergence.
Afghanistan/epidemiology* ; COVID-19/prevention & control* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Humans ; Hygiene ; Pandemics/prevention & control* ; Sanitation ; Water ; Water Supply

Objective: To analyze the pollution status and influencing factors of Legionella pneumophila in a secondary water supply facility in a city. Methods: From June to August 2020, a survey on the level of Legionella pneumophila in secondary water supply unit was carried out in a city in northern China, and 304 sets of secondary water supply facilities were included in the study. A total of 760 water samples were collected from the inlet and outlet water of the secondary water supply facilities and some water samples in the water tank were collected for the detection of Legionella pneumophila, standard plate-count bacteria and related physical and chemical indicators. Through questionnaire survey, the basic information of secondary water supply facilities and daily management of water quality were collected. Multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors of Legionella pneumophila contamination. Results: Among 304 sets of secondary water supply facilities, most of them were located in residential buildings [57.24% (174/304)]. High and low water tank water supply, low water tank variable frequency conversion water supply and non-negative pressure water supply accounted for 26.6% (81/304), 36.8% (112/304) and 36.5% (111/304), respectively. About 25.7% of facilities (78/304) were positive for Legionella pneumophila. Among them, the positive rates of Legionella pneumophila in high and low water tank water supply, low water tank variable frequency conversion water supply and non-negative pressure water supply facilities were 38.3% (31/81), 29.5% (33/112) and 12.6% (14/111), respectively. The results of multivariate logistic regression model analysis showed that the disinfectant residue could reduce the risk of Legionella pneumophila contamination in water samples, and the OR (95%CI) value was 0.083 (0.022-0.317). The increase of the standard plate-count bacteria and conductivity might increase the risk of Legionella pneumophila contamination in water samples. The OR (95%CI) values were 3.160 (1.667-5.99) and 1.004 (1.001-1.006), respectively. Compared with the non-negative pressure water supply, the risk of Legionella pneumophila contamination of secondary water supply facilities was increased by water supply from high and low water tanks and variable frequency conversion water supply from low water tanks, with OR (95%CI) values of 4.296 (2.096-8.803) and 2.894 (1.449-5.782), respectively. Conclusion: The positive rate of Legionella pneumophila in secondary water supply in the study city is high. Disinfectant residue, conductivity and method of water supply are associated with the positive rate of Legionella pneumophila.
Humans ; Legionella ; Water Microbiology ; Water Supply ; Legionella pneumophila ; Reproduction ; Disinfectants

We aimed to assess the risks of
China ; Cryptosporidiosis/microbiology* ; Cryptosporidium/isolation & purification* ; Giardia/isolation & purification* ; Giardiasis/microbiology* ; Humans ; Risk Assessment ; Water Microbiology ; Water Supply/statistics & numerical data*

Objective: Our objective was to investigate the occurrence of opportunistic pathogens and characterize the bacterial community structures in the water system of a pulmonary hospital. Methods: The water samples were collected from automatic and manual faucets in the consulting room, treatment room, dressing room, respiratory ward, and other non-medical rooms in three buildings of the hospital. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to quantify the load of several waterborne opportunistic pathogens and related microorganisms, including spp., spp., and . Illumina sequencing targeting 16S rRNA genes was performed to profile bacterial communities. Results: The occurrence rates of spp., spp., and were 100%, 100%, and 76%, respectively in all samples. Higher occurrence rates of were observed in the outpatient service building (building 1, 91.7%) and respiration department and wards (building 2, 80%) than in the office building (building 3), where no was found. were more abundant in automatic faucets (average 2.21 × 10 gene copies/L) than in manual faucets (average 1.03 × 10 gene copies/mL) ( < 0.01). , , , , , and were the dominant bacterial phyla. Disinfectant residuals, nitrate, and temperature were found to be the key environmental factors driving microbial community structure shifts in water systems. Conclusion This study revealed a high level of colonization of water faucets by opportunistic pathogens and provided insight into the characteristics of microbial communities in a hospital water system and approaches to reduce risks of microbial contamination.
China ; Drinking Water ; microbiology ; Genes, Bacterial ; Hospitals ; Legionella ; isolation & purification ; Microbiota ; Mycobacterium ; isolation & purification ; Mycobacterium avium ; isolation & purification ; RNA, Bacterial ; analysis ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S ; analysis ; Water Quality ; Water Supply

BACKGROUND: Improved water sources are not equally available in all geographical regions. Populations dependent on unsafe water sources are recommended to treat their water at point-of-use using adequate methods to reduce associated health problems. In Ethiopia, the spatial distribution of households using unimproved water sources have been incomplete or ignored in most of the studies. Moreover, evidence on the point-of-use water treatment practice of households dependent on such water sources is scarce. Therefore, the current study is intended to analyze the spatial distribution of unimproved water sources by wealth quintiles at country level and point-of-use treatment (POU) practices using nationally representative data. METHOD: The data of 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) conducted on 16650 households from 643 clusters were used for the analysis. For spatial analysis, the raw and spatially smoothed coverage data was joined to the geographic coordinates based on EDHS cluster identification code. Global spatial autocorrelation was performed to analyze whether the pattern of unimproved water coverage is clustered, dispersed, or random across the study areas. Once a positive global autocorrelation was confirmed, a local spatial autocorrelation analysis was applied to detect local clusters. The POU water treatment is analyzed based on reported use of either boiling, chlorine (bleach), filtration, or solar disinfection (SODIS). RESULTS: There were 5005 households using unimproved water sources for drinking purposes. Spatial variation of unimproved water coverage was observed with high coverage observed at Amhara, Afar, Southern Nations Nationalities and People and Somalia regions. Disparity in unimproved water coverage between wealth quintiles was also observed. The reported point-of-use water treatment practice among these households is only 6.24%. The odds of POU water treatment among household heads with higher education status is 2.5 times higher (95% CI = 1.43-4.36) compared to those who did not attend education. CONCLUSION An apparent clustering trend with high unimproved water coverage was observed between regions and among wealth quintiles hence indicates priority areas for future resource allocation and the need for regional and national policies to address the issue. Promoting households to treat water prior to drinking is essential to reduce health problems.
Drinking Water/analysis* ; Ethiopia ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Spatial Analysis ; Water Purification/methods* ; Water Supply/statistics & numerical data*

Well water could be a stable source of drinking water. Recently, the use of well water as drinking water has been encouraged in developing countries. However, many kinds of disorders caused by toxic elements in well drinking water have been reported. It is our urgent task to resolve the global issue of element-originating diseases. In this review article, our multidisciplinary approaches focusing on oncogenic toxicities and disturbances of sensory organs (skin and ear) induced by arsenic and barium are introduced. First, our environmental monitoring in developing countries in Asia showed elevated concentrations of arsenic and barium in well drinking water. Then our experimental studies in mice and our epidemiological studies in humans showed arsenic-mediated increased risks of hyperpigmented skin and hearing loss with partial elucidation of their mechanisms. Our experimental studies using cultured cells with focus on the expression and activity levels of intracellular signal transduction molecules such as c-SRC, c-RET, and oncogenic RET showed risks for malignant transformation and/or progression arose from arsenic and barium. Finally, our original hydrotalcite-like compound was proposed as a novel remediation system to effectively remove arsenic and barium from well drinking water. Hopefully, comprehensive studies consisting of (1) environmental monitoring, (2) health risk assessments, and (3) remediation will be expanded in the field of environmental health to prevent various disorders caused by environmental factors including toxic elements in drinking water.
Animals ; Arsenic ; toxicity ; Barium ; toxicity ; Drinking Water ; analysis ; Environmental Exposure ; Environmental Health ; Environmental Monitoring ; Humans ; Mice ; Water Pollutants, Chemical ; toxicity ; Water Wells

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of intermittent negative pressure therapy on the skin microcirculation perfusion of quadriceps in male rowers, and to provide basis for the practical application of this method. METHODS: Fourteen male rowers were selected from the national rowing team and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The daily training plans of two groups were the same. The recovery intervention for experimental group was implemented by 20 minutes in the cube of Vacusport Regeneration System (German), 5 times per week for 4 weeks, no recovery intervention for control group. Microcirculation markers were collected by PeriFlux5000 system before and after the 4-week intervention. The markers included microcirculatory blood perfusion(MBP), average velocity of blood cells(AVBC), concentration of moving blood cells (CMBC), and values of the markers included basic values and post-heating values (44℃), difference before and after heating of the values was considered as the reserve capacity of those markers. RESULTS: The test results before the 4 weeks intervention showed there was no statistical difference between the two groups(P＞0.05). After the 4 weeks intervention: ①MBP: The post-heating value and the difference of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (P＜0.05). But there was no statistical inner-group difference. ②AVBC: The post-heating values and the difference in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P＜0.05). Intra-group comparison found that the post-heating values after post-intervention were significantly reduced, compared with those of pre-intervention (P＜ 0.01); the difference after post-intervention was reduced significantly, compared with those in the pre-intervention (P＜0.05). ③CMBC: The post-heating values and the difference in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P＜0.01). There were no statistical significant inner-group difference. CONCLUSION Lower limb intermittent negative pressure therapy can improve the skin microcirculation of the quadriceps of the male rowers, which has a positive effect on the rapid recovery of physical fitness.
Humans ; Lower Extremity ; Male ; Microcirculation ; Pressure ; Quadriceps Muscle ; blood supply ; Skin ; blood supply ; Water Sports