Identification and assessment of hazardous compounds in drinking water

The identification of organic chemicals in drinking water and their assessment in terms of potential hazardous effects are two very different but closely associated tasks. In relation to both continuous low-level background contamination and specific, often high-level, contamination due to pollution incidents, the identification of contaminants is a pre-requisite to evaluation of significant hazards. Even in the case of the rapidly developing short-term bio-assays which are applied to water to indicate a potential genotoxic hazard (for example Ames tests), identification of the active chemicals is becoming a major factor in the further assessment of the response. Techniques for the identification of low concentrations of organic chemicals in drinking water have developed remarkably since the early 1970s and methods based upon gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) have revolutionised qualitative analysis of water. Such techniques are limited to "volatile" chemicals and these usually constitute a small fraction of the total organic material in water. However, in recent years there have been promising developments in techniques for "non-volatile" chemicals in water. Such techniques include combined high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) and a variety of MS methods, involving, for example, field desorption, fast atom bombardment and thermospray ionisation techniques. In the paper identification techniques in general are reviewed and likely future developments outlined. The assessment of hazards associated with chemicals identified in drinking and related waters usually centres upon toxicology - an applied science which involves numerous disciplines. The paper examines the toxicological information needed, the quality and deployment of such information and discusses future research needs. Application of short-term bio-assays to drinking water is a developing area and one which is closely involved with, and to some extent dependent on, powerful methods of identification. Recent developments are discussed.