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ANSES recently published a note in response to a request for scientific and technical support regarding the recast of amended Directive 98\/83\/EC on the quality of water intended for human consumption. The collective expert assessment was carried out by the emergency collective expert group GECU “Recast of the DWQ Directive”.
\nThe European Commission (EC) published a proposal to recast this Directive 98\/83\/EC on 1 February 2018. This new text is expected to be adopted at the end of 2018.
\nThe draft revision includes an update to the list of parameters to be analysed and the associated parametric values, based on the most recent scientific evidence.<\/p>\n
Below are some remarks made by the GECU regarding this update:
\n– The GECU approves the introduction of bacteriophages into the draft Directive with a parametric value of 0 PFU\/100 mL.
\n– The GECU is in favour of introducing the Legionella parameter and recommends performing simultaneous analysis of L. spp and L. pneumophila, as well as clarifying the proposed thresholds.
\n– Regarding E. coli, coliform bacteria and enterococci, the GECU proposes replacing the value of “0 in 100 mL” by expressing the result as “not detected in 100 mL” and specifying the methods to be used for analysis in raw water.
\n– The GECU recommends adding intestinal enterococci to the list of “core” parameters, on the same basis as E. coli, given their resistance to disinfection treatments, and retaining coliform bacteria as an indicator parameter of treatment efficiency.
\n– The GECU recommends not including Clostridium perfringens spores among the “core” parameters, so that testing for them can be adapted based on risk analysis.
\n– The GECU recommends retaining the Pseudomonas aeruginosa parameter in Annex I of the draft Directive, as it is a potentially pathogenic bacterium and an indicator of proper maintenance of the bottling line.
\n– The GECU considers that testing for Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts would be relevant in raw water (surface water and groundwater influenced by surface water) as part of requests for authorisation to use water to produce drinking water.
\n– The GECU proposes setting a limit value of 1 NTU for turbidity at the point where drinking water enters distribution, and a value of 2 NTU at the consumer’s tap, to account for possible degradation of water quality in the public and private network (particularly corrosion issues).
\n– The GECU is in favour of introducing the parameters chlorates, chlorites, haloacetic acids and uranium into the draft recast Directive.
\n– The GECU notes that the proposed values for total PFAS and individual molecules are not based on health considerations. Given the large number of molecules making up the per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemical family, it stresses the need to define a list of compounds to be tested for (with their CAS numbers) and to assign individual values to them.
\n– The GECU highlights the importance of the issue of exposure to endocrine disruptors and is aware of the strong concerns expressed about the potential health impact of these compounds.
\nRegarding the 3 proposed molecules, the GECU notably highlights very significant analytical constraints, risks of sample contamination during sampling and analysis, the low contribution of drinking water to total dietary exposure for BPA and nonylphenol, and proposed parametric values that are far lower than existing reference health values.
\nConsequently, the GECU considers that introducing these 3 substances into Annex I of the Directive is not appropriate.
\n– The GECU recommends proposing a parametric value for total quantifiable microcystins and specifying that this refers to the sum of intracellular and extracellular microcystins.
\n– Given the toxicity of chromium VI, the GECU is in favour of lowering the parametric value for chromium in drinking water, but considers that the proposed value for chromium VI should be around 6 \u00b5g\/L.<\/p>\n