Background It is essential to assess the health risks of pollutants in drinking water among exposed populations in the context of drinking water pollution events. Current criterion in China are not suitable for short-term exposure assessment of drinking water pollutants, and relevant methodologies remain inadequate and need to be improved.
Objective This study is conducted to assess the human health risk of drinking water pollutants in an emergency.
Methods The modified four steps of health risk assessment (hazard identification, doseresponse assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization) recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency were used in the present study. One-day or tenday short-term drinking water safety concentration (SWSC) was defined according to actual exposure durations. Hazard quotient (HQ) was applied for assessing human health risk of drinking water pollutants in emergencies. Based on the phenol water pollution event in Zhenjiang of Jiangsu in 2012, a health risk assessment was conducted.
Results In the drinking water pollution event of Zhenjiang City in 2012, the exposure duration of the population was 3 d. The exposure concentration and SWSC of phenol in drinking water was 0.132mg·L-1 and 6mg·L-1, respectively. The HQ was hereby calculated as 0.022 according to the equation developed in the study. The health risk induced by exposure to phenol in the emergency was acceptable.
Conclusion The methodology based on the toxicity of water pollutants could reveal pollutant SWSC, and quantitatively assess the shortterm health risk of drinking water pollutants in emergencies.
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