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Toxicological characteristics of drinking water in two large-scale municipal water supply systems of a metropolitan city in Central China

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Abstract

Drinking water safety is threatened by numerous toxic organic pollutants difficult to chemically monitor. This study aimed to determine the toxicological profiles of organic extracts (OEs) of water samples from source to tap in two drinking water supply systems in a metropolitan city, Central China, during different hydrological periods. Mortality, DNA damage, growth, and development of Caenorhabditis elegans were evaluated following exposure to OEs. The median lethal doses of OEs of drinking water samples (n = 48) ranged from 266 REF (relative enrichment factor) to > 1563 REF. When tested at a dose of 100 REF, 56.25% (27/48) of OEs induced genotoxicity, 4.17% (2/48) inhibited the growth, and 45.83% (22/48) decreased the offspring number in C. elegans. No clear temporal-spatial variation patterns of the OEs toxicity indicators were observed. The correlations among the toxicity indicators were generally poor. The observed toxicities were not closely related to the level of dissolved organic carbon in drinking water. These findings support using multiple endpoint bioassays, such as C. elegans-based approaches, as complementary tools to conventional chemical analysis for drinking water quality monitoring.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Editage (www. editage.cn) for English language editing.

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Author notes

  1. Huai-Ji Wang and Chen-Wei Peng are co-first authors with equal contribution.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, and State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, People’s Republic of China

    Huai-Ji Wang, Chen-Wei Peng, Xue Han, Yan Wang, Fei Tang & Ai-Lin Liu

  2. Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wuhan, 430022, People’s Republic of China

    Huai-Ji Wang & Jun-Ling Liu

  3. School of Basic Medicine, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, 450046, People’s Republic of China

    Xue Han

  4. Wuhan Water Group Company Limited, Wuhan, 430034, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Zhang & Meng-Xuan Zhou

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Contributions

Huai-Ji Wang, investigation and writing — original draft; Chen-Wei Peng, formal analysis and writing — original draft; Xue Han, investigation and methodology; Yan Wang, data curation and software; Jie Zhang, resources; Jun-Ling Liu, investigation; Meng-Xuan Zhou, investigation; Fei Tang, laboratory support; and Ai-Lin Liu, project administration and writing — review and editing.

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Correspondence to Ai-Lin Liu.

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Research involving animals.

This article contains studies with Caenorhabditis elegans, which is a popular model animal.

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Wang, HJ., Peng, CW., Han, X. et al. Toxicological characteristics of drinking water in two large-scale municipal water supply systems of a metropolitan city in Central China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 64058–64066 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26882-w

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