The impact of utilities on the quality of drinking water. Drinking water quality and human health

The problem of the quality of drinking water affects very many aspects of the life of human society throughout its history. Currently, drinking water is a social, political, medical, geographical problem, as well as engineering and economic. The concept of "drinking water" was formed relatively recently and can be found in the laws and legal acts on drinking water supply.

Drinking water - water that meets its quality in its natural state or after processing (cleaning, disinfection) established regulatory requirements and intended for drinking and household needs of a person or for the production of food products. We are talking about the requirements for the combination of the properties and composition of water, under which it does not adversely affect human health, either when taken orally or when used for hygienic purposes, as well as in food production.

Drinking water - the most important factor in human health. Almost all of its sources are subject to anthropogenic and man-made effects of varying intensity. The sanitary condition of most of Russia's open reservoirs has improved in recent years due to a decrease in the discharge of industrial effluents, but is still alarming.

Drinking water: sources, physico-chemical characteristics of drinking water

Freshwater resources exist due to the eternal circulation of water. As a result of evaporation, a huge amount of water is formed, reaching 525 thousand km 3 per year. 86% of this amount falls on the salty waters of the World Ocean and the inland seas - the Caspian Sea. Aral and others; the rest is evaporated on land, and half due to transpiration of moisture by plants. Every year a layer of water approximately 1250 mm thick evaporates. Part of it falls out again with precipitation into the ocean, and part of it is carried by wind to the land, and here it feeds rivers and lakes, glaciers and groundwater. The natural distiller feeds on the energy of the Sun and takes about 20% of this energy. Only 2% of the hydrosphere falls on fresh water, but they are constantly renewed. The rate of renewal and determines the resources available to humanity. Most of the fresh water - 85% - is concentrated in the ice of the polar zones and glaciers. The water exchange rate here is less than in the ocean, and is 8000 years old.

The surface waters of the land are updated about 500 times faster than in the ocean. Even faster, in about 10 - 12 days, the waters of the rivers are updated. The fresh water of the rivers is of the greatest practical importance for humanity. Rivers have always been a source of fresh water. But in the modern era they began to transport waste. Waste in the catchment area along the river beds flows into the seas and oceans. Most of the river water used is returned to rivers and ponds as wastewater. Until now, the growth of sewage treatment plants lagged behind the growth of water consumption. And at first glance, this is the root of evil. In fact, everything is much more serious. Even with the most advanced treatment, including biological, all dissolved inorganic substances and up to 10% of organic pollutants remain in the treated wastewater. Such water can again be suitable for consumption only after repeated dilution with pure natural water. And here for humans it is important the ratio of the absolute amount of wastewater, even if it is purified, and the water flow of the rivers.

Humanity will have to change its water use strategy. The necessity forces to isolate the anthropogenic water cycle from the natural one. In practice, this means a transition to a closed water supply, to low or low water, and then to a “dry” or wasteless technology, accompanied by a sharp decrease in the volume of water consumption and treated wastewater.

As the first sanitary and hygienic characteristics of fresh water, organoleptic indicators were used, which were based on the intensity of perception by organs of the senses of the physical properties of water. Currently, this group includes as standard characteristics:

· Odor at 20 o C and heated to 60 o C,

· Score, chromaticity on scale, degree

· Transparency on scale,

· Turbidity on a standard scale, mg / dm 3

· Coloring of the painted column (absence of aquatic organisms and film)

The concept of threshold effects of toxicants on the body is used as a fundamental basis for the development of MPCs of all types of pollutants.

When conducting systematic biogeochemical studies, the presence of three areas on the functional dependence curve between the dose (concentration of toxic substance) and the effect (negative effects on the body) was established:

· When small amounts of consumption of toxicant or harmless to the body, or stimulates its livelihoods

· In the area of medium concentrations, there is an optimal range in which the body is able to regulate interaction with the environment

· A further increase in the concentration of a substance in water may cause the suppression of the vital activity of the organism.

To ensure the quality of water in water sources and water consumption systems, a number of regulatory documents are used based on MPC values, of which the main ones are as follows:

· GOST 2874-82 “Drinking water. Hygienic requirements and quality control.

· GOST 2761-84 "Sources of centralized drinking water supply. Hygienic, technical requirements and selection rules.

· “Sanitary norms for the maximum permissible content of harmful substances in the water of water bodies of household drinking and cultural use” SanPiN 42-121-4130-88.

· "Sanitary rules and standards for the protection of surface waters from pollution." SanPiN 4630-88

· “Water Code of the Russian Federation”, 1997

A direct criterion for the safety of drinking water in the epidemic respect is the absence of pathogenic microorganisms in it. However, the direct determination of pathogenic flora in water is a technically difficult task, therefore, indirect indicators of its quality are used. They are based on a link established during epidemiological observations between the number of microorganisms-saprophytes and the contamination of bacteria that cause intestinal diseases. These indicators include the total number of microorganisms, determined in 1 ml of water when grown on a nutrient medium (must not exceed 100 in 1 ml), as well as the number of E. coli: if the index is the number of E. coli in 1 liter of water (not more than 3), or if the titer, i.e. the amount of water in milliliters, which contains only 1 E. coli (at least 300 ml). However, E. coli can not always serve as a sanitary indicator in monitoring the effectiveness of water purification, in particular from viral contamination, therefore, depending on the sanitary and epidemic situation, direct determination of viral microflora can be carried out.

Drinking water problems

In Russia, the problem of providing the population with good-quality drinking water remains unsolved, and in a number of regions has acquired a crisis nature. Of the water supplied to the population, 68% are surface water sources, only 1% of which correspond to the quality provided by existing technologies to obtain drinking water (in accordance with the limits of SanPiN 2.1.4.559-96 “Drinking water. Hygienic requirements for water quality”). According to the State Statistics Committee of Russia, the centralized water supply systems have 1078 cities (99% of the total) and 1,686 urban-type settlements (83%), about 34 thousand settlements (22%). The total length of pipeline networks in Russia is 456,000 km. With an average level of specific consumption in the Russian Federation for household, drinking and household needs, equal to 272 l / day per 1 inhabitant, in Moscow this indicator is 539 l / day, in the Chelyabinsk region - 369, Saratov - 367, Novosibirsk - 364, Magadan - 359, Kamchatka - 353 l / day.

In recent years, there has been a trend towards pollution of almost all surface waters - sources of centralized water supply. In some areas, there has been an increase in the number of sections with high (10 MPC) and extremely high (100 MAC) levels of water bodies. The quality of groundwater used for water supply (32% of the total water intake) basically meets the regulatory requirements, but their pollution also increases. As a result, about 90% of surface and 30% of groundwater taken for water supply needs treatment. Due to the increased man-made pollution of water sources with oil products, heavy metal salts, pesticides, nitrates, and other harmful substances, the technologies used to prepare drinking water are ineffective in most cases. What leads, as a rule, to the consumption of water of not drinking quality by the population.

Production and supply of standard drinking water to the population depends on a number of factors: the state of the water supply sources, sanitary zones, compliance of the water treatment technology with the quality of the source water, and the sanitary and technical condition of the water supply networks.

Operating water treatment plants, built 25–30 years ago using traditional technologies, were designed for conditioning natural waters with a small anthropogenic load. Currently, they are not able to guarantee the uninterrupted supply of consumers with benign water, since their barrier functions with respect to certain types of pollution (especially chemical) are extremely small. In addition, up to 40 types of carcinogenic contaminants, including chloroform, dichloromethane, dichloroethane, and other chlorinated hydrocarbons are usually formed in the process of water treatment during its primary chlorination. It has been established that 28 identified compounds have mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. In addition, chlorine-based disinfection of chromium-containing water leads to the oxidation of trivalent chromium to hexavalent, which, as is well known, has a carcinogenic effect.

High contamination of water sources and inefficient water treatment technologies are the main causes of poor quality of drinking water in the Volga region, where surface water sources provide 85% of drinking water needs. In all subjects of the Russian Federation, there have been cases of violations of the requirements of GOST in terms of physicochemical and microbiological indicators. The difficult situation with the supply of high-quality drinking water to the population is noted in the republics of Karelia, Dagestan, Yakutia, Primorsky Krai, Arkhangelsk, Kemerovo and Murmansk regions. Of the total volume of wastewater entering the surface water bodies through the utilities, more than 90% are discharged by polluted water. Thus, one of the main sources of anthropogenic impact on water sources is the discharge of insufficiently treated or simply untreated wastewater from the housing and utilities complex.

In addition to man-made stresses on surface sources of drinking water supply, anthropogenic pollution from public services appears. Pollution entering the body with drinking water, provoke the occurrence of many diseases.

Existing water treatment technologies do not meet the current level of pollution of water sources. To improve the quality of water, it is necessary to abandon its preliminary chlorination, use of strong oxidizing agents (hydrogen peroxide, ozone), new coagulants and flocculants, new filter materials.

The main sources of contaminated drinking water

Municipal sewage - contain both chemical and microbiological contamination and pose a serious danger. Bacteria and viruses contained in them cause dangerous diseases: typhus and paratyphoid fever, salmonellosis, bacterial rubella, cholera embryos, viruses that cause inflammation of the brain and intestinal diseases. Such water can be a carrier of eggs of worms (tapeworms, roundworms and whipworms). In municipal wastewater there are also toxic detergents (detergents), complex aromatic hydrocarbons (ACS), nitrates and nitrites.

Industrial effluents.

Depending on the industry, the industry may contain almost all existing chemicals: heavy metals, phenols, formaldehyde, organic solvents (xylene, benzene, toluene), mentioned above (ACS) and the like. particularly toxic wastewater. The latter species causes mutagenic (genetic), teratogenic (damaging the fetus) and carcinogenic (cancer) tumors.

The main sources of particularly toxic wastewater are:

· Metallurgical industry, mechanical engineering

· Fertilizer production

· Pulp and paper industry

· Cement and asbestos production

· Paint industry.

Paradoxically, the process of purification and water treatment (!) Is also a source of pollution.

Municipal waste

Of course, all of these components are filtered through the upper layer of soil, but some of them (viruses, water-soluble and fluid substances) are able to penetrate the groundwater with almost no losses. The fact that the cesspools and local sewage are located at some distance from the wells, does not mean anything. It is proved that groundwater can, subject to certain conditions (n. Light gradient) move in a horizontal plane for several kilometers !!!

Industrial waste

Industrial dust and gases are carried by air streams hundreds of kilometers from the emission source. Soil industrial pollution also includes organic compounds produced during the processing of vegetables and fruits, meat and milk, waste from breweries and livestock breeding complexes. Metals and their compounds penetrate the tissues of the body in the form of an aqueous solution. The penetrating ability is very high: all internal organs and the fetus are affected. Removal from the body through the intestines, lungs and kidneys leads to disruption of the activity of these organs.

The accumulation in the body of the following elements leads to:

Kidney damage - mercury, lead, copper.

Liver damage - zinc, cobalt, nickel.

Capillary damage - arsenic, bismuth, iron, manganese.

The defeat of the heart muscle - copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, mercury, thallium.

The occurrence of cancer - cadmium, cobalt, nickel, arsenic, radioactive isotopes.

Introduction

Water is vital. It is needed everywhere - in everyday life, agriculture and industry. Water is needed by the body more than anything else, with the exception of oxygen. A well-fed person can live for 3-4 weeks without food, and only a few days without water.

A living cell needs water to maintain its structure and to function normally; she is about 2/3 of body weight. Water helps regulate body temperature, serves as a lubricant that facilitates the movement of joints. It plays an important role in building and repairing body tissues.

With a sharp reduction in water intake, a person becomes ill or his body begins to function worse. But water is needed, of course, not only for drinking: it also helps maintain a person in good hygienic condition of his body, home and environment.

Without water, personal hygiene is impossible, that is, a set of practical actions and skills that protect the body from diseases and maintain human health at a high level. Washing, warm bath and swimming bring a sense of cheerfulness and calm.

The value of water in human life.

Water is the most important component of our habitat. After air, water is the second most important component of human life. How important water is is the fact that its content in various organs is 70–90%. With age, the amount of water in the body varies. A three-month fetus contains 90% of water, a newborn is 80%, an adult is 70%. Water is present in all tissues of our body, although it is unevenly distributed:

· The brain contains - 75%

· Heart - 75%

· Light - 85%

· Liver - 86%

· Kidneys - 83%

· Muscles - 75%

· Blood - 83%.

Today, more than ever, our body is very important to get clean water with a balanced mineral composition.

It transports the waste of our body, delivers grease to the joints, stabilizes our temperature and is the vital basis of the cell.

Water is necessary to support all metabolic processes, it participates in the uptake of nutrients by the cells. Digestion becomes possible only when the food takes on a water-soluble form. Crushed tiny food particles acquire the ability to penetrate through the intestinal tissues into the blood and intracellular fluid. More than 85% of all metabolic processes in our body occur in the aquatic environment, so the lack of clean water inevitably leads to the formation of free radicals in human blood, which leads to premature aging of the skin and, as a consequence, the formation of wrinkles.

Consumption of clean water ensures the normal functioning of the internal organs. It preserves the flexibility of your body, lubricates your joints and helps the penetration of nutrients. A good supply of clean water helps to fight obesity. This is expressed not only in reducing excessive appetite, but also in the fact that a sufficient amount of pure water contributes to the processing of already accumulated fat. These fat cells are able to leave your body with good water balance.

Water is a heat carrier and thermostat. It absorbs excess heat and removes it, evaporating through the skin and respiratory tract. Water moisturizes the mucous membranes and the eyeball. In the heat and during physical exercises, there is an intense evaporation of water from the surface of the body. Consumption of cool clean water, which is absorbed into the blood from the stomach, ensures timely cooling of your body, protecting it from overheating. During training, for the normal functioning of the body, it is necessary to drink in small portions about 1 liter per hour.

Even if you do not bother yourself with exercise too much, you still need to constantly fill up the water deficit. The atmosphere in modern buildings is often overheated and air conditioned. It dries the air and dehydrates the body. The same thing happens when traveling by train, plane or car. Coffee, tea, alcohol - all these pleasures of life contribute to the removal of water from the body. An adult is able to live without food for more than a month, without water for several days. Dehydration of the body by 10% leads to physical and mental disability. Loss of 20% of water leads to death. During the day from 3 to 6% of the water contained in the body is exchanged. Half of the water in the body is exchanged for 10 days.

The amount of water required to maintain water balance depends on age, physical activity, ambient temperature and humidity. The daily need for an adult is about 2.5 liters.

Clean drinking water also increases the body's defenses against stress. It dilutes blood, fights fatigue, helps the cardiovascular system, fights stress. A healthy lifestyle is based on proper nutrition, activity and consumption of clean water.

With such a large value of water for humans, the water must be of adequate quality, if the water contains any harmful substances, they will inevitably be distributed throughout the body.

Impact of water resources on human health.

The water we consume must be clean. Diseases transmitted through polluted water cause deterioration of health, disability and death of a huge number of people, especially children, mainly in less developed countries, which are usually characterized by low levels of personal and community hygiene. Diseases such as typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, hookworm, are transmitted primarily to humans as a result of contamination of water sources with feces isolated from patients.

Success in combating these diseases or achieving their complete elimination depends on how the system of removal of all metabolic products released from the human body is organized, how the matter of providing clean water to the entire population is organized.

The quality of water is also determined by the presence in it of chemical inclusions, which our senses detect first: smell, sight. So, microparticles of copper give some turbidity to water, iron - red.

There are basic indicators of drinking water quality. They can be divided into groups:

1. Organoleptic characteristics (smell, taste, color, turbidity)

2. Toxicological indicators (aluminum, lead, arsenic, phenols, pesticides)

3. Indicators affecting the organoleptic properties of water (pH, total hardness, petroleum products, iron, manganese, nitrates, calcium, magnesium, permanganate oxidation, sulfides)

4. Chemicals formed during the treatment of water (residual free chlorine, chloroform, silver)

5. Microbiological indicators (thermotolerant coliforms or E. coli, TBC).

The experience of the laboratory in analyzing the quality of water has shown that iron, manganese, sulfides, fluorides, calcium and magnesium salts, organic compounds, etc. can be attributed to the most common water pollutants (the content of components exceeds the standards).

What are the negative properties of water can give these or other components in the case of their content above standards?

Water presence gland does not threaten our health. However, the increased iron content in water (more than 0.3 mg / l) in the form of bicarbonates, sulfates, chlorides, organic complex compounds or in the form of a highly dispersed suspension gives the water an unpleasant red-brown color, affects its taste, causes the development of iron bacteria, sedimentation in pipes and clogging. If laundry is washed in such water, rust stains will remain on it. Similar stains appear on dishes, sinks, and baths. When drinking water with an iron content above the standard, a person risks acquiring various liver diseases, allergic reactions, etc.

Increased content manganese in water has a mutagenic effect on humans. At levels in the water supply system in excess of 0.1 mg / l, manganese causes stains on plumbing fixtures and underwear, as well as an unpleasant taste of drinks. The presence of manganese in drinking water can cause deposits to accumulate in the distribution system. Even at a concentration of 0.02 mg / l, manganese often forms a film on the pipes, which peels off as a black precipitate.

Sometimes in drinking water there are a lot of salts of hydrochloric and sulfuric acids ( chlorides and sulphates). They give the water a salty and bitter salty flavor. The use of such water leads to disruption of the gastrointestinal tract. Water in which 1 l of chlorides is more than 350 mg, and sulphates is more than 500 mg, is considered unfavorable for health.

Content in water cations calcium and magnesium informs water the so-called hardness. Water hardness is expressed in meq / l (= mol / m cub.), In German degrees (1 mol / m. Cube = 2.804 mute German hail), French degrees (1 mol / m. Cube = 5.005 French. Hail), American degrees (1 mol / m cube = 50.050 amer. hail). The optimal physiological level of hardness is 3.0-3.5 mEq / l. Strongly saturated with salt water causes a lot of inconvenience: it boils vegetables and meat more difficult, when washing increases the consumption of soap, scum spoils teapots and boilers. Stiffness above 4.5 mEq / l leads to intensive accumulation of sediment in the water supply system and plumbing, interferes with the operation of household appliances. According to the instruction manual for household appliances, the water hardness should not exceed 1.5-2.0 mg-eq / l. Constant ingestion of water with increased rigidity leads to the accumulation of salts in the body and, ultimately, to diseases of the joints (arthritis, polyarthritis), to the formation of stones in the kidneys, gall bladder and bladder.

Water is also responsible for human teeth. How much fluorine contained in the water depends on the frequency of incidence of caries. It is believed that the fluoridation of water is effective for the prevention of caries, especially in children. The fluoride content in drinking water is higher than sanitary standards (not more than 1.5 mg / l) has a harmful effect on human health. Fluorine is a biologically active microelement whose content in drinking water to avoid caries or dental fluorosis should be in the range of 0.7-1.5 mg / l.

But in addition to useful impurities in the water there are others that are dangerous to the human body.

Presence in water sulphides (hydrogen sulfide) gives the water an unpleasant odor, intensifies the corrosion process of pipelines and causes their overgrowing due to the development of sulfur bacteria. Sulphides have a toxic effect on humans and cause skin irritation. Hydrogen sulfide is toxic to living organisms.

According to domestic researchers, the use of mine water containing 0.2-1 mg / l arsenic , causes disorder of the central, and especially the peripheral, nervous system with the subsequent development of polyneuritis. An arsenic concentration of 0.05 mg / l is recognized as harmless.

On the health hazards of water content lead hygienists first spoke in connection with the massive intoxication that arose when using lead pipes on water mains. However, elevated lead concentrations can occur in groundwater. Water is considered harmless if its lead content is not more than 0.03 mg / l.

Strontium widely distributed in natural waters, while its concentrations vary widely (from 0.1 to 45 mg / l). Long-term its intake in large quantities into the body leads to functional changes in the liver. At the same time, the continuous consumption of drinking water containing strontium at the level of 7 mg / l does not cause functional and morphological changes in the tissues, organs and in the whole human body. This value is adopted as the standard strontium content for drinking water.

According to modern scientific data, nitrates in the human intestine under the influence of the bacteria living there are reduced to nitrites. Absorption of nitrates leads to the formation of methemoglobin and a partial loss of hemoglobin activity in oxygen transport.

Thus, the basis of methemoglobinemia is one or another degree of oxygen starvation, the symptoms of which are manifested primarily in children, especially infants. They become ill predominantly by artificial feeding, when dry milk mixtures are diluted with water containing nitrates, or when drinking this water. Older children are less susceptible to this disease, and if they become ill, it is less severe, since their compensatory mechanisms are more developed. The use of water containing 2-11 mg / l of nitrates does not cause an increase in blood levels of methemoglobin, while the use of water with a concentration of 50-100 mg / l dramatically increases this level. Methemoglobinemia is manifested by cyanosis, an increase in the blood content of methemoglobin, a decrease in blood pressure. Experts have registered these symptoms not only at children, but also at adults. The nitrate content in drinking water at 10 mg / l is harmless.

Uranium - radioactive element widespread in natural waters. Especially large concentrations of it can occur in groundwater. The rationing of uranium is based on its radioactive properties, and toxic effects as a chemical element. The permissible uranium content in drinking water is 1.7 mg / l.

Cadmium accumulating in the kidneys, causes hypertension, weakens the body's immunity, has a negative effect on the mental abilities of a person, because displaces zinc required for normal brain function.

Aluminum , accumulating in the body, can cause senile dementia, increased excitability, cause impaired motor reactions in children, anemia, headaches, kidney disease, liver, colitis, neurological changes associated with Parkinson's disease.

The maximum permissible concentration in water of certain additives used for water clarification (for example, polyacrylamide , aluminum sulphate).

There is such an indicator as permanganate oxidability (the norm of 5 mg O2 / l, not more, is the total oxygen concentration corresponding to the amount of the permanganate ion (MnO4-) consumed during the processing of a water sample by this oxidant), which characterizes the measure of the presence of organic water (gasoline, kerosene, phenols, pesticides, herbicides, xylenes, benzene, toluene) and oxidizable inorganic substances (iron salts (2+), nitrites, hydrogen sulfide).

Organic substances that cause an increased value of permanganate oxidation adversely affect the liver, kidneys, reproductive function, as well as the central nervous and immune systems of a person. Water having permanganate oxidation above 2 mg O2 / l is not recommended for use.

The toxicity of the above components is not so great as to cause acute poisoning, but with prolonged use of water containing the substances mentioned in concentrations higher than the normative, chronic intoxication may develop, eventually resulting in a particular pathology. It should also be borne in mind that the toxic effects of substances can manifest themselves not only during oral (through the mouth) ingestion with water, but also during absorption through the skin during hygienic (shower, bath) or wellness (swimming pools) procedures.

Thus, in order to answer the question about the suitability of drinking water, it is necessary to evaluate the sample by at least the above parameters.

By sanitary standards, any water that flows from a tap must meet the standards of drinking water. However, these norms are far from the quality of hot water. At the time of hot water from the station, the temperature is 130 degrees. Naturally, no microbe can withstand such heat. However, on its way through rusty and demolished heating networks, the liquid is not only saturated with living and very harmful microorganisms, but also with chemically hazardous substances. In the first place - it is iron, lead, arsenic, chromium, mercury. The main threat, primarily to the health of hair and skin, is active chlorine, which at high temperatures forms an extremely toxic substance in water - dioxin. Microbes and trace elements that accumulate in hot water are detrimental to the damaged areas of the skin and hair. Skin diseases and hair diseases in many ways become a serious problem due to the ingress of pathogenic substances into the affected areas.

Water pollution.

Few people nowadays doubt that the water that we drink and use in everyday life needs additional cleaning, wherever it comes from — from a well, an artesian well, or a water supply system. According to statistics from Gosstroy of Russia, about 40% of the urban water supply network is in emergency condition, not to mention the country cottages and

holiday villages, where the quality of natural water often goes beyond sanitary standards. In their reports at scientific conferences, scientists increasingly state that not only non-drinking, but not even “household” water flows from our tap.

In recent decades, the surface and underground water sources of Russia are subjected to intensive anthropogenic pollution. The deterioration of the water quality of water sources has led to the fact that in many regions drinking water does not meet the hygienic requirements of both sanitary and chemical and sanitary and biological indicators. According to the Russian Ministry of Health, about half of the country's population is forced to use substandard drinking water. The unfavorable regions include the Caucasian republics, Kalmykia, Smolensk, Arkhangelsk, Kurgan regions, Dagestan, Karelia, Astrakhan, Omsk, Volgograd regions, the Far East. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the quality of drinking water, although it causes complaints from residents, but continues to keep the leader in terms of organoleptic and chemical indicators.

The problem of providing the population of the Russian Federation with drinking water of regulatory quality has become one of the most acute problems of modern society - the problem of national security.

The main sources of pollution are drinking water.

Communal sewage - contain both chemical and microbiological contamination and pose a serious danger. Bacteria and viruses contained in them cause dangerous diseases: typhus and paratyphoid fever, salmonellosis, bacterial rubella, cholera embryos, viruses that cause inflammation of the brain and intestinal diseases. Such water can be a carrier of eggs of worms (tapeworms, roundworms and whipworms). In municipal wastewater there are also toxic detergents (detergents), complex aromatic hydrocarbons (ACS), nitrates and nitrites.

Industrial effluent

Depending on the industry, almost all existing chemicals can be contained: heavy metals, phenols, formaldehyde, organic solvents (xylene, benzene, toluene), mentioned above (ACS) and so on. particularly toxic wastewater. The latter species causes mutagenic (genetic), teratogenic (damaging the fetus) and carcinogenic (cancer) tumors. The main sources of highly toxic wastewater are the metallurgical industry and engineering, fertilizer production, the pulp and paper industry, asbestos cement production and the paint and varnish industry. Paradoxically, the process of purification and water treatment (!) Is also a source of pollution.

Municipal waste

In most cases, where there is no water supply network, there is no sewage system, and if there is, then it (sewage system) cannot completely prevent the penetration of waste into the soil and, therefore, into the groundwater. Since the upper horizon of groundwater is located at a depth of 3 to 20 m (the depth of ordinary wells), it is at this depth that the “products” of human activity accumulate in much more serious concentrations than in surface waters: detergents from our washing machines and bathtubs, kitchenware waste (food debris), human and animal feces. Of course, all of these components are filtered through the upper layer of soil, but some of them (viruses, water-soluble and fluid substances) are able to penetrate the groundwater with almost no losses. The fact that the cesspools and local sewers are located at some distance from the wells does not mean anything. It is proved that groundwater can, subject to certain conditions (n. Light gradient) move in a horizontal plane for several kilometers !!!

Industrial waste

In groundwater, they are present in slightly smaller quantities than in surface waters. Most of this waste goes straight to the rivers. In addition, industrial dust and gases are deposited directly or in combination with precipitation and accumulate on the soil surface. plants dissolve and penetrate deep into. Therefore, no one who is professionally engaged in water treatment will be surprised by the content of heavy metals and radioactive compounds in wells located far from the metallurgical centers - in the Carpathians. Industrial dust and gases are carried by air currents hundreds of kilometers from the emission source. Soil industrial pollution also includes organic compounds from the processing of vegetables and fruits, meat and milk, waste from breweries and livestock farms.

Metals and their compounds penetrate the tissues of the body in the form of an aqueous solution. The penetrating ability is very high: all internal organs and the fetus are affected. Removal from the body through the intestines, lungs and kidneys leads to disruption of the activity of these organs. The accumulation in the body of the following elements leads to:

· Kidney damage - mercury, lead, copper.

· Liver damage - zinc, cobalt, nickel.

· Capillary damage - arsenic, bismuth, iron, manganese.

· Damage to the heart muscle - copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, mercury, thallium.

· The occurrence of cancer - cadmium, cobalt, nickel, arsenic, radioactive isotopes.

Water quality in St. Petersburg.

In terms of drinking water supply, St. Petersburg is in special, one might say unique, conditions. From an environmental point of view, the Neva is not a river, but a rather short channel connecting Lake Ladoga with the Gulf of Finland. In this case, the lake plays the role of a giant sedimentation tank, in which all pollution, including industrial and household, sinks to the bottom, and in most cases neutralizes. As a result, in St. Petersburg they drink water from the surface, fairly clean layers of Ladoga. Presumably this water does not contain harmful chemical impurities.
We clean the water well, not worse than in many European capitals, such as London or Paris, but this purified water enters the water supply network through old rusty pipes, in addition, saturated with bacterial flora. Naturally, the intensity of water pollution in pipes depends on the time during which it reaches the consumer's tap. In areas located near waterworks, water does not have time to capture too many germs and rust, but the length of pipes laid in remote areas exceeds ten kilometers. In the morning and in the afternoon, when the inhabitants are at work, the water in them moves slowly and is saturated with bacteria and iron. During this period, the water intake is small, and the water in the pipes stagnates.

According to the latest data, the drinking water supplied to the city’s population from January to July 2004 complied with hygienic requirements at the exit from the waterworks of the State Unitary Enterprise Vodokanal of St. Petersburg.
From January to July 2004, in the control points of the distribution water supply network, the institutions of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance of St. Petersburg selected 3,944 samples for microbiological indicators and 3,514 water samples for sanitary and chemical indicators.
3.3% of water samples do not meet the requirements of SanPiN 2.1.4.1074-01 “Drinking water. Hygienic requirements for water quality of centralized drinking water supply systems. Quality control "on the iron content and turbidity.
0.22% of water samples do not meet the requirements of the same SanPiN for microbiological indicators.

In order to improve the quality of drinking water, GUP Vodokanal of St. Petersburg developed a “Program of priority measures to ensure the hygienic and anti-epidemic safety of water supply sources and drinking water supplied to the population of St. Petersburg.” The program includes issues of monitoring, improving the protection of water sources and epidemic reliability at the stages of water transportation, issues of improving water treatment technologies at waterworks, etc.

Methods for cleaning and filtering tap water.

According to the research institute "Human Ecology and Environmental Hygiene named after A. N. Sysin" RAMS:

· On average in the country, almost every third sample of “piped” water does not meet hygiene requirements for sanitary and chemical indicators and every tenth sample for sanitary and bacteriological ones;

· In separate city reservoirs contains from 2 to 14 thousand synthesized chemical substances;

· Only 1 percent of surface water sources meet the first-class requirements for which the traditional water treatment technologies we use are designed;

Selecting a water treatment system for your home, you should be aware that water will be used for household purposes, as well as for drinking and cooking. The task of bringing the water quality to the optimum level for each of its applications is solved using appropriate water treatment systems. Such systems are divided into those that are installed where water enters the house, and those that are placed at the point of use, for example, in the kitchen. The first do the water "household": it works normally with a washing machine, you can wash the dishes, rinse under a shower. The second - prepare drinking water. The requirements for the purity of water in the first and second cases should be different. Otherwise, either drinking water is squandered for household needs, or water that has not been properly cleaned is used for drinking.

At the entrance to the water supply system of the apartment, it is advisable to put a coarse filter with a stainless steel mesh or polymer cartridges, which can delay suspension and rust. This is necessary in order to extend the life of plumbing. You will reduce the internal corrosion of mixers that react very badly to particles, ceramic ceramics will be less prone to rust and hardness salts. Sometimes for the filter there is no place in the water riser. Then you can put a very small device made of brass, called a "mud dresser" and eliminates dirt and rust. However, coarse filters can not help in eliminating unpleasant tastes.

By and large, a good device should give maximum cleaning with minimum bulkiness. It is advisable to choose a filter that works constantly to avoid the proliferation of bacteria in the filter itself. It is recommended to use those filters that have passed tests for compliance with state standards. A good filter does not change the natural mineral composition of water that enters the human body. The purpose of installing a home filter is to return our drinking water to its original quality.

Types of water filtration

· Purification systems of bulk type.

· Mesh and disc filters for mechanical cleaning that remove undissolved mechanical particles, sand, rust, suspensions and colloids.

· Ultraviolet sterilizers that remove germs, bacteria and other microorganisms.

· Oxidizing filters that remove iron, manganese, hydrogen sulfide.

· Compact household softeners and ion exchange filters, softening, as well as removing iron, manganese, nitrates, nitrites, sulfates, heavy metal salts, organic compounds

· Adsorption filters that improve organoleptic characteristics (taste, color, odor) and remove residual chlorine, dissolved gases, organic compounds

· The combined filters - complex multistage systems.

· Membrane systems - reverse osmosis drinking water treatment systems, the highest degree of purification.

Argued that the water is very high degree of purification "not useful." Someone thinks that the water should contain the optimal number of trace elements. Others say that the human body absorbs only substances of organic origin, that is, from food of animal and vegetable origin, and water serves as a solvent and should be as clean as possible. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Speaking about drinking water, it is correct, apparently, to operate not with the categories "dangerous - safe".

Purifying water to a state close to distilled is easier and cheaper than ensuring that it contains a number of substances in a certain "optimal" concentration. So, abroad in the production of beer, water is cleaned precisely to this stage, and then a strictly metered amount of substances is added to it, which makes it optimal for further use. In addition, an elementary calculation shows that in order to get an optimal set of macro- and microelements from water, a person should drink at least 30-50 liters of water per day. In other words, even if we get useful substances from water, they make up no more than 10-15% of the daily dose. Solving for themselves the problem of “cleaning or not cleaning”, people are faced with a dilemma: either deliberately remove harmful components from the water by sacrificing 10-15% of the useful substances, or leaving part of the harmful impurities in the water along with the useful ones. Everyone makes their choice.

How much and when to drink?

Consuming water, it is necessary to remember that not only insufficient, but also excessive drinking is harmful. With a sharp limitation of the amount of fluid injected into the body, the excretion of decomposition products with urine decreases, thirst appears, the state of health worsens, the efficiency and intensity of digestion processes decrease. Undoubted harm is also caused by excessive drinking, especially in large portions: sweating increases, “diluted” blood copes worse with the role of oxygen carrier, and its increased volume creates an additional load on the heart, blood vessels, and kidneys.

The emergence and quenching of thirst is associated with the circulation in the body of water. Thirst appears when there is a shift in the input-salt balance towards an increase in salt concentration and drives the osmotic pressure self-regulation system, which determines the permeability of cell membranes, that is, the speed of movement of all substances dissolved in water through them. In the brain (in the area of podbugorya, which is involved in the regulation of the kidneys, lungs, other organs and systems) are nerve cells that are extremely sensitive to osmotic pressure, and when it rises, they cause the body to quench thirst. Often we feel a desire to drink, not so much because there is not enough water in the body, but because of the signals that osmotic pressure can still increase.

In cases where we have a lot of salty and spicy food, quenching the thirst that arises leads to the restoration of water-salt balance and osmotic pressure. It would seem that everything is in order. But there is too much fluid in the body, and then not only organs that pump blood, but also metabolism, suffer from its excess.

By adjusting your drinking regime, you can achieve changes in the function of certain organs. So, the water drunk on an empty stomach, especially cold, aerated, as well as sweet juices, strengthen intestinal motility and thereby have a laxative effect. Very hot drinks, on the contrary, should not be taken on an empty stomach, they adversely affect the gastric mucosa. It is harmful to drink cold water after abundant fatty foods. Such food lasts longer in the stomach, and if you drink a lot of water, it will overflow and further stretch, an unpleasant feeling of discomfort, distention will appear. In addition, an overcrowded stomach reflexively increases intestinal motility, causing diarrhea. After fatty foods it is better to drink a small amount of hot tea.

People struggling with fullness are not recommended to drink during the meal, as the food diluted with liquid becomes mushy, and in this form it leaves the stomach faster, there is a feeling of hunger, forcing you to break the diet. It is better for full people not to drink food, but to drink before a meal or some time after a meal.

You should not drink immediately after eating fruit or berries - this can cause severe flatulence. It is recommended to drink only dry food: sandwiches, pies, crackers, dry biscuits, that is, everything that is difficult to swallow dry.

The volume of fluid consumed along with the water that comes from food should be an average of 2000-2400 ml per day. excessive fluid intake is undesirable and even harmful: it helps to flush out nutrients from the body, including mineral salts and vitamins. In addition, drinking plenty of water creates unfavorable conditions for the cardiovascular system and the digestive system.

It must be borne in mind that hot and warm drinks are absorbed and quench thirst faster than cold ones. If you often want to drink, for example in the heat, it is better to drink some hot tea, moreover, green. You should not drink a lot of liquid at a time: do not quench your thirst, but most of what you drink will be removed within two hours. In addition, massive fluid loads cause unpleasant subjective sensations. But the sharp limitation of water for no particular reason is also not desirable. Regimes with high or low fluid content prescribed by a doctor for medical reasons.

Conclusion

Without any exaggeration, it can be said that high-quality water that meets sanitary, hygienic and epidemiological requirements is one of the indispensable conditions for the preservation of people's health. But in order for it to bring benefits, it must be cleaned of all harmful impurities and delivered to a pure person.

In recent years, the water view has changed. Not only hygienists, but also biologists, engineers, builders, economists, and political figures began to talk about it more often. And it is understandable - the rapid development of social production and urban planning, the growth of material well-being, the cultural level of the population constantly increase the need for water, make it more rational to use it.

Who is responsible for water in Moscow?

The organization responsible for the quality of water in the capital is Mosvodokanal. However, not all water is under its jurisdiction: for example, Mosvodokanal controls the quality of water only in cold water supply systems. This means that everything you read on the Mosvodokanal website refers only to cold water from your tap, because MOEK, or the operating organization responsible for your home, is in charge of the hot water and heat supply.

In Moscow, there are nine districts for the location of the water supply network - in the nine main districts of the capital (Central Administrative District, Joint-Stock Company, North-West Administrative District, North-East Administrative District, North-Eastern Administrative District, North-Eastern Administrative District, Southern-Eastern Administrative Okrug, Southern Administrative Okrug and Southern Administrative Okrug). According to the official website of the organization, Mosvodokanal regularly conducts sampling of water directly from cranes in public institutions (schools, shops, pharmacies, etc.) at more than 250 points in all of the listed areas throughout the city of Moscow, including Zelenograd.

The quality of drinking water in the distribution water network is monitored using water sampling and microbiological and organoleptic (ie, taste, smell, color) indicators. Such inspections are carried out with a certain frequency, depending on the number of people in the village that serves this water supply network:

<10 тыс.чел. – 2 пробы/месяц;
10-20 thousand people - 10 samples / month .;
20-50 thousand people - 30 samples / month .;
50-100 thousand people - 100 samples / month .;
\u003e 100 thousand people. - 100 + 1 sample / month. for every 5 thousand people.

Plus there are mandatory checks after repairs and other technical works in the water supply network.

What are the parameters estimated tap water in Moscow?

There are a lot of them, the main ones are pH, color, turbidity, residual chlorine, odor at 20 and 60 degrees, levels of the number of bacteria. The expanded list contains hardness, nitrite, nitrate, chloride, fluoride and other substances. A full list of indicators can be found in the text of SanPiN 2.1.4.1074-01 (SanPiN - Sanitary Rules and Regulations).

To make it easier for you to navigate in terminology, let's look at the characteristics of water that we often use in our speech - hardness and alkalinity.

Alkalinity - is the ability of water to neutralize hydrogen ions. This indicator often appears as pH - the value characterizing the concentration of hydrogen ions in solutions. Those. pH is a measure of the acid-base (i.e. acid-base) properties of water. According to the standard SanPiN 2.1.4.1074-01, the pH for drinking water in Russia should be in the range of 6.0-9.0 (7.0 is neutral pH, all that is greater than 7 is alkaline, all that is less is acidic) .

Hardness of water - This property is due to the content of calcium and magnesium ions in water. Water is divided by hardness on:

Very soft -<1,5
Soft<3
Medium hardness<5,4
Tough<10,7
Very tough\u003e 10.7

Do not confuse hardness with mineralization!

Mineralization water - this is the amount of salts that will remain after heating water to +100 C, evaporation and heating the dry residue to +105 C to a stable weight. The indicator is expressed in mg / l or g / l. According to the level of salinity, the following types of water are distinguished:

Fresh: 0.2 - 0.5 g / l
With relatively high mineralization: 0.5 - 1 g / l
Brackish: 1 - 3 g / l
Salty: 3 - 10 g / l
With increased salinity: 10-35 g / l
Transitional to brines: 35-50 g / l
Brines: 50-400 g / l

It is important to understand that there is no 100% pure water on Earth, it is always a solution some elements. Distilled water is a product of human activity, and in no case can one drink it instead of ordinary water - this will lead to the elimination of vital salts, minerals and trace elements from the body.

Where do you get water for Moscow?

Muscovites drink, wash, wash and water the flowers with water from two sources, depending on the area of residence: In ZAO, SZAO, South-West Administrative Okrug and SAD, as well as in the near Moscow region (for example, in Odintsovo) Rublevskaya and Western water treatment plants located on the left bank of Moscow -the rivers take water, in fact, from the Moscow River and from the reservoirs of the Moscow Canal - Klyazma and Uchinsky. In the CAO, NEAD, HLW and SEAD Northern and Eastern water treatment plants on the right bank of the Moscow River take water from the Volga. The layout of water treatment stations is.

What is the quality of water in Moscow?

According to Greenpeace, there are four treatment facilities in Moscow: Lyubertsy, Yuzhnoye Butovo, Zelenograd and Kuryanovskiye. They are all different and differently equipped, t.ch. the quality of the water that flows from your tap is highly dependent on the area in which you live. For example, the author of these lines lives in the South-West, in the area of Prospekt Vernadsky, and we are fine here (according to Mosvodokanal, again). All indicators are significantly below the maximum permissible levels specified in SanPiN 2.1.4.1074-01, which is good news. You can check the quality of water and find out its main indicators here by entering your address.

What path the water passes from the sewage system through the sewage treatment plant back into the river is well described, for example, in the LJ blog of the Greenpeacer Igor Podgorny. All stages of purification are described and illustrated by the example of the Kuryanovsk wastewater treatment plant, and even tells about a mini-thermal power plant operating on biogas obtained from the sediments of wastewater treatment plants.

In conclusion, I would like to say that Moscow has good water! We have heard this many times from many experts, other experts have publicly stated that in Moscow you can drink tap water. And, they say, the Lyubertsy treatment facilities are so advanced that even foreign delegations come there with excursions. Maybe the LookBio edition will somehow be taken to one of them.

"Now anyone can get information about the quality of water. For example, here you can get data on water hardness, which is useful for housewives who will know what tools to add when washing. But I can say that in Moscow the water is not very hard to to spend money on additional funds for the population, therefore, washing powder is enough, "said Stanislav Khramenkov, general director of the enterprise MGUP Mosvodokanal.

You can get information about your home on the Mosvodokanal website:
http://www.mosvodokanal.ru/index.php?do=cat&category=kach_munic

When performing quality control of water in the urban water supply network, water sampling for analysis is performed directly from consumer taps (in schools, shops, pharmacies, hospitals, and other institutions) at more than 250 locations throughout Moscow, including Zelenograd. According to the results of these analyzes, the quality of drinking water supplied to residents in their homes is assessed.

MGUP "Mosvodokanal" monitors water quality only in cold water systemsResponsible for the quality of services provided at the border balance of centralized water supply networks and domestic water supply systems. For the quality of hot water and heat supply services is responsible JSC "MOEK" or your operating organization.

For ensuring proper operation of the in-house water supply system, the organization managing your residential house (DEZ, TSZH, ZhSK, etc.) is responsible, with which MGUP Mosvodokanal concludes an agreement on the supply of drinking water and waste water to the municipal sewage system.

Please send your wishes and comments related to the operation of this service to the email address: [email protected] indicating the topic of the letter "Comments on the operation of the Water Quality service".

Background information from MGUP "Mosvodokanal".

We live on a planet that covers three quarters of it with water. And yet, water is not enough. Lack of clean, fresh water, and, above all, to drink. At least a billion people all over the world drink dirty water, and more than three million earthlings, mostly children, die each year due to illnesses associated with poor water. According to the World Health Organization, 80% of diseases are transmitted through water. Therefore, before getting to the consumers, the water is cleaned and disinfected.

Water is taken for water supply from two main sources: Moskvoretsky and Volzhsky. In the first case, directly from the Moscow River, regulated by the Rublevskaya dam, specially created for this purpose, and in the second, from the reservoirs of the watershed of the Moscow Canal named Klyazma and Uchinsky. The Vazuzsky hydraulic system serves as a kind of reserve capacity, the water from which is supplied to the Volga River, and if necessary, through the watershed through a system of canals and pumping stations on the Moskvoretsky slope.

Water disinfection can be performed in various ways: using strong oxidizing agents, which include chlorine, ozone, chlorine dioxide, or by physical methods, such as ultraviolet irradiation. But only the treatment of water with chlorine provides a long bactericidal effect and allows you to save epidemic water safety during its transportation to the consumer’s crane.

In addition to the main function - disinfection, due to the unique oxidative properties and the preservative effect of the aftereffect, chlorine also serves other purposes - to control taste and smell, prevent algae growth, keep filters clean, remove iron and manganese, destroy hydrogen sulfide, discoloration, etc. . In this sense, none of the alternatives to chlorine can compare with it in terms of its versatility and ease of use. In the world in 99 out of 100 cases, either pure chlorine or chlorine-containing products are used for disinfection.

We constantly meet with chlorine in everyday life. In the form of various compounds, it is part of more than 100 minerals. In water, chlorine is contained in the form of chlorides. The human body receives the main amount of chlorides (up to 90%) with table salt. In the human stomach, chlorine ions create a favorable environment for the action of enzymes of gastric juice.

A bit of history:

The earliest proposal to chlorinate water was made by Dr. Robli Dunlingsen in 1835, even before it was discovered that water can be a carrier of pathogenic bacteria.

By 1846 refers to the first mention of the use of chlorine as a bactericidal agent. Dr. Semmelweis, in the main hospital in Vienna, used bleach water to wash his hands before examining patients.

1870 - chlorination was first used after the cholera epidemic in London. And in 1881, the German bacteriologist Robert Koch demonstrated that pure bacterial cultures can be destroyed by chlorine-containing solution — sodium hypochlorite.

Currently:

Chlorine or chlorine-containing products are widely used in water treatment in all countries of the world (in 99 cases out of 100!), Especially in large metropolitan areas with a long and extensive network, such as: Paris, London, New York, Madrid and Tokyo.
In Moscow, the length of the water supply network of which is more than 11 thousand kilometers, chlorination is also used.

This length of water pipes is comparable
with distance from Moscow to the Far East.

It can be said that chlorination is the price of living in a big city.

The use of chlorine in the process of water treatment is a firm guarantee of its safety!

The introduction of chlorine into the water treatment process is a guarantee of its safety. Disinfection of Moscow water is carried out in 2 stages - before cleaning at water treatment plants and before being supplied to the city - to preserve its safety all the way to the consumer. After such disinfection in drinking water, neither putrefactive nor pathogenic bacteria capable of causing gastric diseases remain.

World Health Organization - the content of residual chlorine in drinking water should not exceed 5 mg / l.
Russian standard SanPiN 2.1.4.1074-01 Before water is supplied to the distribution network, the content of bound chlorine (chlorine, which in water has entered into combination with other substances) is from 0.8 to 1.2 mg / l, and free chlorine is from 0.3 to 0.5 mg / l

In Moscow tap water, the concentration of chlorine compounds meets the requirements of the developed countries of the world. Automatic equipment constantly monitors the dosing of chlorine and controls its content in water.

As water moves from the water treatment plant to the consumer, the concentration of chlorine in the water gradually decreases, so this smell in tap water may be different in different parts of the city. Also, the concentration of residual chlorine is influenced by the water temperature: the lower it is, the longer chlorine remains in it, so the smell of chlorine is less felt in summer than in winter.

Currently, Moscow water treatment plants switch to the use of sodium hypochlorite, bactericidal properties and mechanism of action of which are similar to chlorine. But, unlike chlorine, sodium hypochlorite is not combustible and not explosive. When using it, the risk of emergencies and their consequences is disproportionately lower than when using liquid chlorine, which is especially important for the Moscow metropolis, where residential neighborhoods are getting closer to water treatment plants. The transition to the use of sodium hypochlorite does not affect the quality of drinking water. Technological processes for receiving, storing and dispensing the reagent are fully automated: in a continuous mode, the maintenance of specified parameters is ensured, including the control of the content of residual chlorine in water.

Drinking water supplied to the cranes of Muscovites, fully complies with the requirements of regulatory documents of the Russian Federation and does not contain harmful impurities.

What to do to eliminate the taste and smell of chlorine?

Chlorine gas completely evaporates from the open vessel. Therefore, before drinking, it is enough to hold the water in an open container for an hour and a half.

Boil water.

You can pour water into a tight-fitting glass decanter and cool it in the refrigerator - reducing the temperature neutralizes the taste of chlorine.

It is not bad to put a slice of lemon, orange in a carafe or add citrus juice, drop a mint leaf or drop a few drops of orange orange tincture.