scholarly journals Common themes contributing to recent drinking water disease outbreaks in affluent nations

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1767-1777 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. E. Hrudey ◽  
E. J. Hrudey
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Disease Outbreak ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Waterborne Disease ◽  
George Santayana ◽  
The Past ◽  
Recent Outbreak

Abstract New Zealand experienced its largest waterborne disease outbreak in modern history in August 2016 with 5,500 cases and four fatalities. This recent outbreak is one of 24 drinking-waterborne disease outbreaks in affluent nations that have been reported in the scientific literature since the infamous Walkerton, Ontario, Canada fatal outbreak (2,300 cases, seven fatalities) in May 2000. These disasters were all eminently preventable given the economic and intellectual resources existing in the countries where they occurred. These outbreaks are analysed according to major recurring themes, including: complacency, naiveté and ignorance, failure to learn from experience and chemophobia. Lessons that can be learned to improve preventive approaches for ensuring safe drinking water are based on an extensive and authentic body of evidence in support of meaningful improvements. Philosopher George Santayana captured this need with his famous quote: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’

A nose for trouble – the role of off-flavours in assuring safe drinking water

2007 ◽  
Vol 55 (5) ◽  
pp. 239-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.E. Hrudey ◽  
E.J. Hrudey
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Common Factors ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Disease Outbreak ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Or Efficiency ◽  
Water Utility ◽  
Common Features ◽  
The Past

A detailed review of drinking water disease outbreaks over the past 30 years in 15 affluent countries produced over 70 case studies, some involving fatalities, which revealed a number of common factors in these disasters. Some of these outbreaks involved off-flavours, either as a driver for reducing disinfection and making the system vulnerable to pathogenic contamination or as an early warning of contamination that was not responded to with sufficient urgency or efficiency to avoid a disease outbreak. The characteristics of these outbreaks are recounted and the important link they reveal between aesthetically pleasing drinking water and safety is documented. Our analysis of common features in drinking water outbreaks also supports an argument that the failure of a water utility to be concerned about aesthetic factors makes such water supplies an inherently greater health risk for their consumers.

Achieving safe drinking water — risk management based on experience and reality

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (NA) ◽  
pp. 169-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Rizak ◽  
Steve E. Hrudey
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Water Quality Monitoring ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Waterborne Disease ◽  
International Consensus ◽  
Developed World

Over recent years there have been a number of high profile water quality incidents in the developed world that have drawn attention to the safety of our drinking water supplies and how we are managing our systems. An analysis of these and other waterborne disease outbreaks reveals some important themes about the underlying causes of outbreak failures and some broader issues about the role of drinking water quality monitoring for the protection of public health. Experience has shown that waterborne disease outbreaks in affluent countries almost universally demonstrate that the outbreaks were eminently preventable and, in most circumstances, the solutions for assuring safety from the risks of drinking water are not complex and rely not so much on implementing stringent water quality standards, as on improved system management and operation. Given these themes, assuring drinking water safety requires a commitment to a comprehensive approach to risk management, one that focuses on prevention and better measures of control extending from catchment and source protection through to the consumer. There is a growing international consensus moving towards this strategy for assuring safe drinking water, which provides the prospects of making water even more safe than it currently is most places in the developed world.

scholarly journals Waterborne disease outbreak detection: an integrated approach using health administrative databases

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Coly ◽  
N. Vincent ◽  
E. Vaissiere ◽  
M. Charras-Garrido ◽  
A. Gallay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Detection Method ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Outbreak Detection ◽  
Administrative Databases ◽  
Waterborne Disease ◽  
Disease Outbreak Detection

Hundreds of waterborne disease outbreaks (WBDO) of acute gastroenteritis (AGI) due to contaminated tap water are reported in developed countries each year. Such outbreaks are probably under-detected. The aim of our study was to develop an integrated approach to detect and study clusters of AGI in geographical areas with homogeneous exposure to drinking water. Data for the number of AGI cases are available at the municipality level while exposure to tap water depends on drinking water networks (DWN). These two geographical units do not systematically overlap. This study proposed to develop an algorithm which would match the most relevant grouping of municipalities with a specific DWN, in order that tap water exposure can be taken into account when investigating future disease outbreaks. A space-time detection method was applied to the grouping of municipalities. Seven hundred and fourteen new geographical areas (groupings of municipalities) were obtained compared with the 1,310 municipalities and the 1,706 DWN. Eleven potential WBDO were identified in these groupings of municipalities. For ten of them, additional environmental investigations identified at least one event that could have caused microbiological contamination of DWN in the days previous to the occurrence of a reported WBDO.

scholarly journals Drinking-water safety – challenges for community-managed systems

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (S1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Rizak ◽  
Steve E. Hrudey
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Failure Modes ◽  
Water System ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Waterborne Disease ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Weather Events

A targeted review of documented waterborne disease outbreaks over the past decades reveals some recurring themes that should be understood by drinking-water suppliers. Evidence indicates the outbreaks are often linked to some significant change in conditions that provides a sudden challenge to a water system. Severe weather events, such as heavy rainfall or runoff from snow melt, as well as treatment process and system changes, are common risk factors for drinking-water outbreaks. Failure to recognise warning signs and complacency are important contributors to drinking water becoming unsafe. Drinking-water suppliers must focus on competence and vigilance in maintaining effective multiple barriers appropriate to the challenges facing the drinking-water system. Understanding the risk factors and failure modes of waterborne disease outbreaks is an essential component for effective management of community drinking-water supplies and ensuring the delivery of safe drinking-water to consumers.

scholarly journals Groundwater Arsenic Contamination in West Bengal: Current Scenario, Effects and Probable Ways of Mitigation

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 45-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanmoy Kumar Dey ◽  
Priya Banerjee ◽  
Madhurima Bakshi ◽  
Abhirupa Kar ◽  
Somdeep Ghosh
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Chronic Exposure ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Contaminated Water ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Essential Step ◽  
The Past ◽  
Groundwater Arsenic ◽  
Current Scenario ◽  
Mind Set

During the past two decades, Arsenic (As) contamination via groundwater has become a serious issue worldwide and is now a major concern in the Indo-Bangladesh Gangetic delta. Arsenic enters human body through contaminated groundwater consumed as drinking water. Food safety in this region is also facing severe consequences as bio-accumulation of Arsenic is occurring in food crops irrigated with As-contaminated water. Chronic exposure to Arsenic can cause not only cancerous and non-cancer health effects. Reports suggest that about 20 % population in West Bengal is highly affected. Various techniques are being introduced to provide arsenic-free drinking water at an affordable cost. But a rigorous change in habit and mind set for procuring safe drinking water in those surviving in As-contaminated zones is the most essential step towards curbing the fatal consequences of As exposure. Harvesting rain water and utilization of proper purification techniques can be considered a possible alternative of safe drinking water.

scholarly journals Increased information on waterborne outbreaks through efficient notification system enforces actions towards safe drinking water

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 763-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Outi Zacheus ◽  
Ilkka T. Miettinen
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Outbreak Detection ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Notification System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Health Target ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Private Wells ◽  
Compulsory Notification

In 1997, a compulsory notification system for waterborne outbreaks was introduced in Finland. The main aim of this notification is to obtain immediate information on suspected waterborne outbreaks in order to restrict and manage the outbreak promptly. During the past ten years, there have been 67 waterborne outbreaks in Finland, mainly associated with small groundwater supplies or private wells. The number of reported waterborne outbreaks has increased since the launch of the notification system indicating that the threshold limit of outbreak detection has most probably decreased. The number of cases of illness has fulfilled the national health target, which is below 0.01% of the population, but more action is still needed to ensure the production of safe drinking water under all circumstances. Ten years accumulation of knowledge on outbreaks has revealed that a compulsory notification system is an effective tool to gather information on waterborne outbreaks. The system has also increased awareness of possible problems related to the quality of drinking water. This article summarises management and legislative actions and policy measures taken so far in Finland to reduce the number of outbreaks and cases of illness related to them.

scholarly journals Restoring drinking water acceptance following a waterborne disease outbreak: the role of trust, risk perception, and communication

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (9) ◽  
pp. 1761-1770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boyka Bratanova ◽  
Greg Morrison ◽  
Chris Fife-Schaw ◽  
Jonathan Chenoweth ◽  
Mikael Mangold
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Disease Outbreak ◽  
Waterborne Disease ◽  
Risk Perception And Communication

scholarly journals A Systematic Review of Waterborne Disease Outbreaks Associated with Small Non-Community Drinking Water Systems in Canada and the United States

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. e0141646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Pons ◽  
Ian Young ◽  
Jenifer Truong ◽  
Andria Jones-Bitton ◽  
Scott McEwen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
The United States ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Waterborne Disease ◽  
Drinking Water Systems

scholarly journals Surveillance for Waterborne Disease Outbreaks Associated with Drinking Water — United States, 2011–2012

2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (31) ◽  
pp. 842-848 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karlyn D. Beer ◽  
Julia W. Gargano ◽  
Virginia A. Roberts ◽  
Vincent R. Hill ◽  
Laurel E. Garrison ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Waterborne Disease
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