Utilizing Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Combined With Disability-Adjusted Life Years to Evaluate the Health...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Risk Assessment
• Public Health

Background:

• Training rowers have higher exposure risks to polluted water compared to recreational rowers.
• Evaluating health risks for training rowers is essential for their safety.

Purpose of the Study:

• To probabilistically examine health risks for training rowers in the Dongshan River Watershed using QMRA and DALYs.
• To determine critical fecal coliform (FC) levels for risk benchmarks.
• To identify suitable risk benchmarks for river environmental management.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) combined with Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs).
• Monte Carlo simulation to quantify variability in QMRA and DALY parameters.
• Investigation of the relationship between FC observations and critical FC levels.

Main Results:

• The disease burden (DB) risk for training rowers ranged from 108.4 × 10^-6 to 267.2 × 10^-6 per person per year (pppy).
• These risks indicate potential health threats to athletes.
• A preliminary environmental management strategy was suggested at a DB risk of 10^-5 pppy, with a critical FC concentration of 2603 CFU/100 mL.

Conclusions:

• The study highlights significant health risks for training rowers due to water pollution.
• Environmental management based on risk benchmarks is recommended to ensure athlete safety.
• Establishing critical fecal coliform levels is vital for effective river water quality management.