Prioritization and Risk Ranking of Regulated and Unregulated Chemicals in US Drinking Water

Drinking water constituents were compared using more than six million measurements (USEPA data) to prioritize and risk-rank regulated and unregulated chemicals and classes of chemicals. Hazard indexes were utilized for hazard- and risk-based chemicals, along with observed (nondetects = 0) and censor...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 2024-04, Vol.58 (16), p.6878-6889
Main Authors: Rosenblum, James S., Liethen, Alexander, Miller-Robbie, Leslie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemicals
Chlorate
Chromium
Contaminants
Data collection
Drinking water
Ecotoxicology and Public Health
Exposure
Hexavalent chromium
Inorganic compounds
Organic compounds
Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid
Perfluorooctanoic acid
Pollution monitoring
Risk
Trichloropropane
VOCs
Volatile organic compounds
Water utilities
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Drinking water constituents were compared using more than six million measurements (USEPA data) to prioritize and risk-rank regulated and unregulated chemicals and classes of chemicals. Hazard indexes were utilized for hazard- and risk-based chemicals, along with observed (nondetects = 0) and censored (nondetects = method detection limit/2) data methods. Chemicals (n = 139) were risk-ranked based on population exposed, resulting in the highest rankings for inorganic compounds (IOCs) and disinfection byproducts (DBPs), followed by semivolatile organic compounds (SOCs), nonvolatile organic compounds (NVOCs), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for observed data. The top 50 risk-ranked chemicals included 15 that were unregulated, with at least one chemical from each chemical class (chromium-6 [#1, IOC], chlorate and NDMA [#11 and 12, DBP], 1,4-dioxane [#25, SOC], PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS [#42, 44, and 49, NVOC], and 1,2,3-trichloropropane [#48, VOC]). These results suggest that numerous unregulated chemicals are of higher exposure risk or hazard in US drinking water than many regulated chemicals. These methods could be applied following each Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) data collection phase and compared to retrospective data that highlight what chemicals potentially pose the highest exposure risk or hazard among US drinking water, which could inform regulators, utilities, and researchers alike.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/acs.est.3c08745