The European Drinking Water Directive sets standards that must guarantee the quality of tap water, packaged water and water for food preparation. A list has been added to the directive with potentially hazardous substances for health, for which measurements must be made, but which substances are they exactly?

Analysis
Vitens has conducted research into this in collaboration with KWR. In the research article, conclusions are drawn based on a retrospective data analysis. Existing data sets were analysed, whereby a target substance analysis was performed: substances that were specifically measured and non-target screening data were examined. Next, we looked at the prioritization of these substances.

Results
The team looked at 731 substances, of which 153 were found in the sources. The analysis shows that there is a relationship between the degree of purification technology and the amount of substances that were removed. If there was simple purification, then there was only a small amount of removal of substances.

For more information, view the full English-language article here.