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Uses of protozoan monitoring data
Author(s) -
Clancy Jennifer L.,
Hansen Judi
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.1999.tb08634.x
Subject(s) - cryptosporidium , water quality , giardia , public health , business , data quality , turbidity , waterborne diseases , environmental monitoring , watershed , outbreak , environmental health , environmental planning , downstream (manufacturing) , environmental resource management , geography , environmental science , environmental engineering , computer science , medicine , veterinary medicine , biology , ecology , metric (unit) , nursing , marketing , virology , machine learning , feces
Utilities around the world monitor for pathogens, but many find the data too unreliable to be used as a basis for making water quality or public health decisions. European and North American water utilities and regulatory agencies were surveyed to determine current drinking water monitoring practices for Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts and to ascertain how the monitoring data are used. Responses from 27 agencies indicated that monitoring is still generally voluntary, except in the case of disease outbreaks, during which regulatory agencies can require testing. The data are used to study the occurrence of protozoa in source water, to assess treatment efficiency, and to support investment planning. Rarely are these data used to make public health decisions and then only in conjunction with other data such as weather–watershed changes, treatment information, other water quality parameters (i.e., turbidity), and presence of disease in the community. The primary reason protozoan monitoring data are not used in public health decision‐making is lack of reliability of the data quality.