Public Health Aspects of Organics in Water

Abstract

Very little is known about organic products in water; less is known about their effects, individually or in combination, on man. The authors contend that the situation must be righted before water can be reused for consumptive purposes.

Mutagenic activity in organic wastewater concentrates

“…Much less is known about the delayed health effects of organic compounds in water. Ongerth et al (11), in a summary of the available literature in 1973, noted that most studies involving the administration of organic concentrates from water and wastewater to animals had not shown any carcinogenicity. Ottoboni and Greenberg indicated that two of ten male rats given filtered wastewater as drinking water developed tumors (12).…”

Fate of trace organics during land application of municipal wastewater

“…A 1973 literature review revealed that very little work had been done to identify the individual constituents of organic matter in either raw or treated wastewater. 11 The most definitive effort to isolate and identify the individual compounds in municipal wastewater had been carried out by Rosen et al, 12 who detected 77 compounds in primary wastewater and 38 compounds in secondary wastewater using highresolution anion-exchange chromatography. With the advent of gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and other analytical techniques for concentrating, isolating, and identifying individual compounds, the analysis of organic compounds in water and wastewater has advanced rapidly.…”