Associated with the drinking water from centralized drinking water supply systems priority factors for deterioration of health of the population in the Russian Federation

Abstract

Introduction. The population should be provided with qualitative drinking water that is also epidemiologically safe. This is the most vital task to solve in securing sanitary-epudemiological welfare of population in any country. The purpose of the study was to identify harmful factors that affect public health when people consume tap drinking water from centralized supply systems and to perform their hygienic assessment. Materials and methods. The study involved using data from statistical reports published by Federal Service for Supervision in Protection of the Rights of Consumer and Man Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor (Form No. 18)) and data provided by the Federal information fund of social-hygienic c monitoring collected in 2012-2021. Additional disease cases and deaths that were associated with water quality were calculated based on mathematical modelling of relationships within the “indicators of water quality - health disorders” system. Results. The study showed that in 2021 in the Russian Federation as a whole approximately 1.54 million disease cases were caused by poor quality of drinking water including violations of hygienic standards as by certain indicators. Health disorders were registered as per such nosology categories as “diseases of the digestive system”, “endocrine diseases”, “infectious and parasitic diseases” etc. Priority factors that cause additional diseases cases and deaths include chlorine and its organic derivatives, some metals such as iron, manganese, nickel, and boron. Microbiological agents also make a substantial contribution to medical and demographic losses. At the same time, a number of diseases cases associated with drinking water quality went down by more than 14% against 2012; a number of deaths decreased by 6.2%. Limitations of the study. Initial data are rather specific since they describe only the period from 2012 to 2021; all the established relationships between health and indicators of water quality have been determined based on regional data. Conclusion. Improvement of water quality requires implementing several priority activities. Water treatment faculties and pipelines should be modernized; a list of monitored indicators that describe water quality should be optimized (enlarged) considering incidence and mortality among population as per categories of nosologies associated with drinking water quality.