Community drinking water quality monitoring data: utility for public health research and practice

Details

• Personal Author:
  Anderson R ; Graber JM ; Jones RM ; Rockne K ; Stayner, Leslie T. ; Turyk M
• Description:
  Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) tracks the occurrence and magnitude of environmental hazards and associated adverse health effects over time. The EPHT program has formally expanded its scope to include finished drinking water quality. Objectives: Our objective was to describe the features, strengths, and limitations of using finished drinking water quality data from community water systems (CWSs) for EPHT applications, focusing on atrazine and nitrogen compounds in 8 Midwestern states. Methods: Water quality data were acquired after meeting with state partners and reviewed and merged for analysis. Results: Data and the coding of variables, particularly with respect to censored results (nondetects), were not standardized between states. Monitoring frequency varied between CWSs and between atrazine and nitrates, but this was in line with regulatory requirements. Cumulative distributions of all contaminants were not the same in all states (Peto-Prentice test P < .001). Atrazine results were highly censored in all states (76.0%-99.3%); higher concentrations were associated with increased measurement frequency and surface water as the CWS source water type. Nitrate results showed substantial state-to-state variability in censoring (20.5%-100%) and in associations between concentrations and the CWS source water type. Conclusions: Statistical analyses of these data are challenging due to high rates of censoring and uncertainty about the appropriateness of parametric assumptions for time-series data. Although monitoring frequency was consistent with regulations, the magnitude of time gaps coupled with uncertainty about CWS service areas may limit linkage with health outcome data. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Environmental Exposure Environmental Health Environmental Pollution Nitrates Nitrogen Compounds Occupational Health Safety Water Purification
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Atrazine Drinking Water Environmental-hazards Environmental-health Environmental Public Health Tracking Linkage Monitoring-systems Monitors Nitrate Nitrogen-compounds Safe Drinking Water Act Statistical-analysis Water-purification

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• ISSN:
  1078-4659
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Illinois ; Minnesota ; Missouri ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 7 ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  210-219
• Volume:
  20
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045784
• Citation:
  J Public Health Manag Pract 2014 Mar-Apr; 20(2):210-219
• Contact Point Address:
  Rachael M. Jones, PhD, MPH, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2121 W. Taylor St (MC 922), Chicago, IL 60612
• Email:
  rjones25@uic.edu
• CAS Registry Number:
  Atrazine (CAS RN 1912-24-9)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  University of Illinois at Chicago
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Public Health Management and Practice
• End Date:
  20290630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:26c32a6e600a4bdf238771e6cb20294f4d7847cebeab6f13221137abddfdafa7e876787cd765c0036bcaa64ee614624e00b37d886508ab2d8c389de3d7143283
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/201072/cdc_201072_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 784.02 KB ]