Hygienic assessment of drinking water supply of the population of the Russian Federation: problems and the way their rational decision

Introduction: Providing the population with drinking water of guaranteed proper quality and safety is a priority. Vended drinking water has become popular among the general population and the network of water vending machines has grown significantly by now. Development of an independent regulatory and methodological framework for assessment of vended drinking water, the absence of which was acutely felt in previous years, makes the problem of analysis of vended water quality and safety even more urgent. Objective: To analyze regulation of quality and safety of vended drinking water. Materials and methods: The analysis of the current regulatory framework included a review of federal laws, technical regulations, sanitary norms, and state standards. Results: The concept of vended drinking water is absent in the main legislative acts. The existing legal acts are voluntary and advisory in nature, partially contradict each other, and fail to use all opportunities of the legislative framework. A sharp cut in the number of production control indicators does not allow assessment of the quality and safety of vended drinking water for compliance with the requirements of regulatory documents. Conclusions: The growing market of vended drinking water characterized by improved organoleptic properties requires the development of an effective and consistent regulatory framework for ensuring its quality and safety. This implies consolidation of the concept of vended drinking water either in the Technical Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Union on the safety of packaged/bottled water or in the federal law on water supply and sanitation, as well as in sanitary norms and rules.

Regulation of Quality and Safety of Vended Drinking Water

Yeremin,

Mozzhukhina,

Borisova

et al. 2023

Geographic Information System as a Tool of Public Health Monitoring in Rospotrebnadzor and Health Care Structures Given the Example of Sanitary and Hygienic Surveillance of Water Resources: Analytical Review

Kalyuzhin,

Latyshevskaya,

Bayrakova

et al. 2024

Background: Challenges of using geographic information systems (GIS) in public health monitoring are considered. Objective: To review scientific literature on application of geographic information systems as a tool of public health monitoring used to control the sanitary and epidemiological state of the environment, including water bodies, and of health care. Methods: We studied the conceptual apparatus of a geographic information system, analyzed publications describing the use of this tool in the sanitary and hygienic surveillance of water bodies and the prospects for the development and improvement of this system. We examined topical papers published in 2008–2022 and found in searchable electronic databases (Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, eLIBRARY, and ResearchGate) using the following keywords: geographic information system (GIS), sanitary and epidemiological control, public health, water. Of 154 initially identified sources, we selected 53 publications on the experience of using geographic information systems by ministries, federal executive bodies, scientific and higher educational institutions, and also analyzed seven regulatory documents, directly or indirectly regulating the work of geographic information systems. Results and discussion: This review considers the possibility of using a geographic information system as a model for coordinating the activities of local and regional state sanitary and epidemiological surveillance on priority issues related to public health protection. The geographic information system in this case is considered as a single coordination center that ensures accumulation, analysis and visualization of sanitary and epidemiological information on biological contamination of water bodies. Along with the importance and application of GIS, part of the review is devoted to examples of implementation and shortcomings of existing tools, emphasizing the necessity to create a new “unified” software product able to provide “effective” consolidation of information on the sanitary and epidemiological safety of the use of water resources. Conclusion: A geographic information system is not only an effective tool for storing, systematizing and analyzing incoming information on biological contamination of water bodies, but also one of the modern techniques solving such a practical problem as the feasibility of sanitary and hygienic monitoring of water quality and health protection in the population using this water source.

Assessment of the Water Supply System and the Quality of Drinking Water from Centralized Sources in the City of Vladimir

Trifonova,

Martsev,

Selivanov

et al. 2024

Introduction: It is known that the quality of drinking water and its availability are key factors determining health of the population. The Vladimir water supply system is one of the oldest in Russia. Today, most of the pipelines of the urban water distribution network have significant physical wear, which can significantly affect the quality of tap water. Objective: To assess of the quality of drinking water from centralized sources in the city of Vladimir for compliance with hygienic standards. Materials and methods: Water from intake sources, before supply to the distribution system, and in the tap was tested for compliance with water quality standards. We used the results of measuring 17 water quality parameters by the accredited chemical laboratory of the Water Quality Control Center of “Vladimirvodokanal” for 2019–2023 and our own results of testing 9 water samples, three samples per district, for 20 quality indicators in the chemical laboratory of the Department of Biology and Ecology of the Vladimir State University in 2023. The “Kapel-205” capillary electrophoresis system was used to determine the ions; heavy metals were measured using the Spectroscan MAX-G X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. Other water quality parameters were established using methods of potentiometry, conductometry, and titrimetry. Classical methods of variation statistics were applied for data analysis in Microsoft Excel. Results: We found that, depending on the source of water intake, the levels of fluoride ions and solids in some districts exceeded maximum allowable concentrations (mean values in the Leninsky district were 1.57 mg/dm3 and 7.54 mg-eq/dm3, respectively). At the same time, our findings for the ions of iron (0.007–0.028 mg/dm3), zinc (0.054–0.078 mg/dm3), copper (0.014–0.072 mg/dm3), cobalt (0.001 mg/dm3), potassium (the mean for the Leninsky district = 0.51 mg/dm3), sodium (the mean for the Leninsky district = 5.1 mg/dm3), and sulfate (the mean for the Frunzensky district = 18.08 mg/dm3) were below the lower limits of acceptable hygienic standards. Conclusions: The quality of water from centralized sources of the city as a whole complies with the requirements of Russian Sanitary Rules and Norms SanPiN 2.1.3684–21, except for fluoride ions and solids; yet, it does not meet some acceptable hygienic standards. Artificial drinking water mineralization is recommended to the residents of the city of Vladimir to make up for possible deficiency of essential elements.