Logo image
Disability-Adjusted Life Year Frameworks for Comparing Health Impacts Associated with Mycobacterium avium, Trihalomethanes, and Haloacetic Acids in a Building Plumbing System
Journal article

Disability-Adjusted Life Year Frameworks for Comparing Health Impacts Associated with Mycobacterium avium, Trihalomethanes, and Haloacetic Acids in a Building Plumbing System

Dienye L. Tolofari, Tim Bartrand, Charles N. Haas, Mira S. Olson and Patrick L. Gurian
ACS ES&T water, v 2(9), pp 1521-1531
09 Sep 2022

Abstract

risk assessment building plumbing drinking water quality Mycobacterium avium trihalomethanes haloacetic acids
To address trade-offs, prioritize, and manage the risks between microbial and chemical risks, the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) approach was utilized. The sampling data from cold and hot water building plumbing in Philadelphia, PA, revealed three classes of health stressors, nontuberculous mycobacteria, total trihalomethanes (THMs), and total haloacetic acids (HAAs). The concentration data specific to the water system were then used to estimate the annual risk due to the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), THMs, and HAAs. The results from this study suggest that efforts to reduce the potential health risks from disinfection byproducts should still be given due consideration as the annual DALY of bladder cancer (7.61*10–7) was estimated to be greater than the annual DALY of MAC pulmonary disease (4.74*10–12) by 5 orders of magnitude. The DALYs of both THMs (2.62*10–6) and HAAs (2.60*10–6) in buildings via the ingestion exposure route were higher than the reported threshold of 1 μDALY. Relative to the feed water, water quality changes in the building plumbing substantially increased the DALY impacts for microbial risks but modestly decreased the DALY impacts for chemical risks. While the results are specific to the system considered (e.g., chloramine disinfectant, no detectable Legionella), the study presents a framework for prioritizing among building plumbing microbial and chemical risks.

Metrics

17 Record Views
10 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#6 Clean Water and Sanitation
#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Web of Science research areas
Environmental Sciences
Water Resources
Logo image