[Advances of study on assessing exposure to disinfection by-products in drinking water]

DBP exposure assessment issues were addressed. The basic definition to exposure assessment was introduced. Recommended ideal set of drinking water quality parameters to collect for each water treatment plant and specific disinfection by-products to be considered for future studies to adequately characterize DBP exposure were sum up. Previous studies and shortcoming of DBP exposure assessment were discussed and considered. Two examples of DBP exposure assessment were used to explain the progress and method of assessment in detail. Various disciplines to develop better approaches for measuring DBP exposure and greater collaboration of epidemiologists with water utilities and regulators should be encouraged in order to make regulatory monitoring data more useful for epidemiologic studies.