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Problems in Assessing the Risks of Mixtures of Contaminants in Drinking Water

Office of Drinking Water (WH-550D) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 401 M Street, S.W. Washington, DC

Jennifer Orme

Office of Drinking Water (WH-550D) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 401 M Street, S.W. Washington, DC

Edward V. Ohanian

Office of Drinking Water (WH-550D) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 401 M Street, S.W. Washington, DC

Cynthia Sonich-Mullin

Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr. Cincinnati, OH

In conducting risk assessments on drinking water contaminants, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) attempts to evaluate all available toxicity data to develop Health Advisory (HA) and Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) values. The EPA often has grappled with the issues surrounding the toxic ity of chemical mixtures, including radioactive contaminants, nitrate/nitrite, and trihalomethanes (THMs). In evaluating the tox icity of chemical mixtures, the EPA's immediate concern is whether the individual HA values and MCLGs are protecting public health when multiple contaminants are present in drinking water. Poten tial toxic interactions between drinking water contaminants are dif ficult to predict because experimental studies are generally performed only at high doses relative to environmental levels. Although the contamination of drinking water involves mixtures of contaminants, drinking water regulations are generally based on an assessment of the risks of individual contaminants. This paper dis cusses three issues of major concern to the EPA: the synergistic effects of solvent mixtures, vehicle effects in laboratory studies, and setting standards for essential trace nutrients where the absorption and/ or toxicity are affected by an individual's nutritional status or other dietary components.

Key Words: 2. Key words: drinking water • risk assessment • synergism.

Toxicology and Industrial Health, Vol. 5, No. 5, 747-755 (1989)
DOI: 10.1177/074823378900500512


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