Estimation of the consumption of cold tap water for microbiological risk assessment: an overview of studies and statistical analysis of data.

The volume of cold tap water consumed is an essential element in quantitative microbial risk assessment. This paper presents a review of tap water consumption studies. Study designs were evaluated and statistical distributions were fitted to water consumption data from The Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany and Australia.

Spatial patterns of tuberculosis incidence in Cologne (Germany).

In many European countries, the decline of tuberculosis notification rates levelled off in the mid 1980s. Germany has been facing only a very modest resurgence of tuberculosis (TB) in the early 1990s, but until now, the notification rate does not yet fulfil the WHO definition of a low incidence country. Mainly immigration from high incidence countries is held responsible for the delayed decline and temporary increase of TB.

Spatial patterns of diarrhoeal illnesses with regard to water supply structures--a GIS analysis.

This paper presents an application of a geographical information system (GIS) in the field of research of drinking water epidemiology. A retrospective study regarding gastrointestinal infections was carried out in the Rhine-Berg District (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), which is characterised by different drinking water supply structures. The main objective was to examine the hypothesis that spatial variations of diarrhoeal illnesses may be linked with different drinking water sources (groundwater or surface water).

New perspectives on the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in environmental health sciences.

At first glance, the domain of health is no typical area to applicate Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Nevertheless, the recent development clearly shows that also within the domains of environmental health, disease ecology and public health GIS have become an indispensable tool for processing, analysing and visualising spatial data. In the field of geographical epidemiology, GIS are used for drawing up disease maps and for ecological analysis.

Microbial load of drinking water reservoir tributaries during extreme rainfall and runoff.

Hygienic and microbiological examinations of watercourses are usually not carried out during heavy rainfall and runoff events. After rainfall or snowmelt, there are often massive increases in turbidity in flooding creeks in mountain ranges, which are frequently interpreted as an indication of microbial contamination. The aim of this study was to quantify the microbial loads of watercourses during such runoff events and to compare these loads with loads occurring during regular conditions.