Regulations for calcium, magnesium or hardness in drinking water in the European Union member states
Past, current, and future drinking water regulation in the EU
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2. Past, current, and future drinking water regulation in the EU
with regards to Ca and Mg The first common European directive for drinking water quality was issued in 1980 ( EEC, 1980 ). In agreement with prevailing scientific opinion on the health importance of Ca and Mg in drinking water ( WHO, 1979 and 1984 ), qualitative requirements were included in the directive. There were guideline levels for Ca (100 mg/L) and Mg (30 mg/L) and maximum admissible concentration for Mg (125 mg/L); a minimum concentration 60 mg/L for total hardness (TH) expressed as calcium or equivalent cations was required for softened water ( EEC, 1980 ). These requirements were exactly transposed in the national reg- ulations of 15 countries, which were the European Economic Community (EEC) members in 1980 or became the members of the European Community (EC) before 1998. 3 The revised and still valid Drinking Water Directive 98/83/EC was issued in 1998 ( EC, 1998 ). Ca, Mg, and TH were excluded from the list of chemical parameters and indicators. The scientific background document providing the explanation and rationale for excluding Ca, Mg, and TH limits is not available, but we can surmise that the com- pletely changed position of the WHO as reflected in the 2nd edition of its guidelines ( WHO, 1996 ) might have influenced the decision. Even though there is no direct mention of these elements throughout the Directive (98/83/EC), there is an indirect one: “The water should not be aggressive.” Although the Directive does not include limits for these parameters, the member states can regulate them, and most do so. However, the lack of common EU regulation is reflected in the different approaches taken by individual countries. The process of new revision of the directive 98/83/EC started in February 2018 and the negotiations finished in December 2019 with a new directive expected in 2020. The first draft (recast) prepared by the European Commission ( EC, 2018 ) again did not include either Ca and Mg or TH, in spite of the fact that the WHO in its recommendation for update of parameters and parametric values of the recast proposed: “… the Directive includes a recommendation that where drinking-water is de- rived from desalination or any reverse osmosis treatment that demineralizes the water, then Member States should, if possible, add calcium and mag- nesium salts to condition the water to reduce corrosion and improve taste” ( WHO, 2017b ). During the negotiations in the European Council, the group on member states stressed the importance of health and technical concerns for minimum Ca/Mg content in drinking water and proposed to include new indicator parameters ( Table 1 ) in December 2018. After discussions with member states, the Romanian presidency of the Council decided to exclude any numerical limits and instead note a general obligation to set respective recommendations or limit values. The decision about limit values was left to member states taking into account local conditions: “Waters should not be aggressive or corrosive. This applies particularly to waters undergoing treatment (demineralization, softening, membrane treatment, reverse osmosis, etc.). Where water intended for human consumption is derived from treatment that significantly demi- neralizes or softens water, calcium and magnesium salts could be added to condition the water in order to reduce possible negative health impact, as well as corrosion or aggression of water and to improve taste. Minimum concentrations of calcium and magnesium or total dissolved solids in sof- tened or demineralized water could be established taking into account the characteristics of water that enters these processes.” ( Council of the European Union, 2019 ). This text was finally kept in the trilogues between the European Commission, the Parliament, and the Council for revised Directive. Download 0.53 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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