An Assessment of Current and Past Concentrations of Trihalomethanes in Drinking Water throughout France.

In France, 95% of people are supplied with chlorinated tap water. Due to the presence of natural organic matter that reacts with chlorine, the concentrations of chlorination by-products (CBPs) are much higher in chlorinated water produced from surface water than from groundwater. Surface water supplies 33% of the French population.

Variations in trihalomethane levels in three French water distribution systems and the development of a predictive model.

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that chlorination by-products in drinking water may cause some types of cancer in humans. However, due to differences in methodology between the various studies, it is not possible to establish a dose-response relationship. This shortcoming is due primarily to uncertainties about how exposure is measured-made difficult by the great number of compounds present-the exposure routes involved and the variation in concentrations in water distribution systems.

Natural and technical factors in faecal contamination incidents of drinking water in small distribution networks, France, 2003-2004: a geographical study.

This geographical study aimed to show natural or water-processing-related factors of faecal contamination incidents (FCIs) of drinking water in continental France. We defined a FCI as the occurrence of at least 20 colony-forming Escherichia coli or enterococci among all the 100 mL samples collected for regulatory purpose within one day from a given drinking water supply zone (SZ). We explored correlations between the standardized number of FCIs per département (N_Pols) and various indicators related to weather, land cover, topography, geology and water management for three SZ size sub-classes.

Ms identification of microcystin-LR chlorination by-products.

Drinking water disinfection by chlorine is known to reduce concentration of microcystin, but compounds formed are rarely considered. In this work the chlorination of microcystin-LR has been studied by monitoring reactants consumption and reaction products using the linear trap quad-Orbitrap (LTQ-Orbitrap) technology. Microcystin-LR was totally transformed within 2 min, meanwhile chlorine was consumed until 30 min with a rate of 12 mol per mol of toxin.

Field experiments for the evaluation of pesticide spray-drift on arable crops.

Two distinct approaches were used to characterise spray-drift during the application of atrazine and alachlor to a maize crop. The first consisted in determining the quantities which did not reach their target. A first experiment was carried in 2001 to improve the sampling method.

Assessing the transfer of pesticides to the atmosphere during and after application. Development of a multiresidue method using adsorption on Tenax and thermal desorption-GC/MS.

An air sampling and analytical method based on adsorption on porous polymer (Tenax TA) followed by automatic thermal desorption (ATD) and GC/MS analysis was developed for ten pesticides commonly used on major crops in Britanny and some of their metabolites in air (from spray drift and volatilisation transfer processes): alachlor, atrazine (and two major degradation products: deethylatrazine and deisopropylatrazine), carbofuran, cyprodinil, epoxyconazole, iprodione (and 3,5-dichloroaniline), lindane (and -HCH, its isomer), metolachlor, terbuconazole and trifluralin. This method was established with special consideration for optimal thermal desorption conditions, linear ranges, limits of detection and quantification. Moreover, collection efficiencies of Tenax TA at room temperature were examined.

Comparison of different sampling techniques for the evaluation of pesticide spray drift in apple orchards.

An analytical method using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry has been developed for the evaluation of different sampling techniques to characterise spray drift in a commercial apple orchard. Eleven pesticides were studied (fungicides, insecticides and herbicides). A collection of airborne spray-drift pesticides released from a low-profile air-blast orchard sprayer was investigated using six types of samplers: (1) a Perkin-Elmer low volume automatic air sampler using with glass tube packed with Supelpak-2; (2) a high volume air sampler: (3, 4) an impinger containing cyclohexane that could be preceded by a glass fibre filter; and (5, 6) glass cartridges packed with Supelpak-2 that could be preceded by a glass fibre filter.