Water quality is one of the most critical factors in protecting public health. In developed countries, although there is an important regulatory and regulatory framework, however, the size of the urban pollution load inevitably has a negative effect on water resources. Municipal waste contains a large load of pathogenic viruses that even the most sophisticated treatment methods can not completely remove.
It is now very common to detect enteroviruses in environmental water samples, which can cause infections such as polio, hepatitis, gastroenteritis and other types of harmless infections. Water can be contaminated with contaminants (eg feces and urine containing pathogenic microorganisms of animal and human origin) through the release of treated municipal wastewater, resulting in the risk of contamination of humans through contact or consumption.
In the European Union, although it is generally accepted that diseases caused by viruses present in water are considered to be a high risk to public health, monitoring of viruses in water is not mandatory.
This happens for a variety of reasons, both financial and technical. Existing tests for water viruses, based on molecular biology, are costly, time consuming and labor-intensive, so they are only available in a limited number of laboratories in only a few countries, although as mentioned above, network protection water against pathogenic viruses is critical. The European Committee for Standardization, recognizing this gap, made its own effort, creating a new specification for the monitoring of pathogenic viruses in water. More specifically, a CWA (CEN Workshop Agreement) has been developed as it is called, which prescribes a standard detection system, for the immediate, simple and economically viable monitoring of the levels of various types of dangerous viruses.
CWA 17102: 2017 "Wateranalysis - Virussensorsystem - Monitoring rotavirus, norovirus and hepatitis A virus in various types of water intended for human use" prescribes an economically viable on-site monitoring system for rotavirus, norovirus and hepatitis A viruses, in various types of water for human use (through consumption, entertainment or food production), such as urban water supply systems, surface water, drinking water, groundwater aquifers, etc.
This document was published on 11 January 2017 and is the first milestone in the development of a European model. The CWA has a lifespan of 3 years according to European Standards Organization (CEN) regulations, and can be extended to a total of 6 years. The specification (source: CEN) is available after its publication by the Customer Service and Information Center (KEPE) of the Cyprus Standardization Organization (CYS).
* Marios Mavrogiannos is a chemical engineer, standardization officer at CYS.
Source: Liberal