Author(s): Sabino, R. ; Novak Babič, M. ; Gunde-Cimerman, N. ; Veríssimo, C. ; Viegas, C. ; Várgha, M. ; Meyer, W. ; Brandão, J.
Date: 2017
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/4892
Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Nacional de Saúde
Subject(s): Fungi; Drinking Water; Agentes Microbianos e Ambiente
Although exposure to fungi and their metabolites, by inhalation, contact and ingestion has often been addressed, it rarely made way into safety regulation. The EU drinking water directive 98/83/EC and the national legislation in the European countries - with very few exceptions - fails to address fungi explicitly. The same is valid also for European regulatory Directive 2006/7/EC, currently undergoing its second revision with no plan to introduce fungi, yet again. Both Directives address microbiological safety of drinking and bathing / recreational waters by monitoring of bacterial parameters indicating faecal contamination, and correlating with gastro-intestinal illness but leaving behind other microbes and several emerging pathogens and other pathologies. This study assesses the European drinking and bathing water regulations and sand; it evaluates background information, and underpinning missing fungal parameters that (may) affect human health.
