Novel methods and strategies to ensure safe drinking water

Drinking water is our most important food item, with a daily consumption of 2-2.5 liters.

Chemical pollutants in drinking water is a serious hazard to human health, since a large number of chemicals are spread in the environment with very limited knowledge regarding their toxicity.

Due to the large intake and life-long exposure to drinking water, also very low levels of chemical contaminants in drinking water can constitute a health hazard.Development of innovative methods to ensure that drinking water is safe from a chemical perspective is one of the great challenges for the food science.

Researchers at SLU has developed methods to assess the presence of chemical contaminants in drinking water.

These methods can be used to measure the total bioactivity in a water sample, integrating the effects of both known and unknown chemicals.

The drinking water producers express an urgent need for access to these methods, to be able to secure the public access to safe drinking water.The aim of this project is to transfer knowledge regarding these new tools from academia to some of the largest drinking water producers in Sweden.

By transferring knowledge and new methods from academia to practical application in the water sector, we contribute with tools so that the drinking water producers can ensure that the population is not exposed to hazardous chemicals via the drinking water.