Danish studies on exposure of geogenic elements in drinking water and public health

In Denmark, drinking water is entirely based on groundwater. Water quality can be assessed with a high degree of certainty for the major part of the population. Drinking water quality is monitored routinely, and data on... [ view full abstract ]

In Denmark, drinking water is entirely based on groundwater. Water quality can be assessed with a high degree of certainty for the major part of the population. Drinking water quality is monitored routinely, and data on drinking water quality have for decades been archived in the public-available database JUPITER.

Assessing the health impacts of geogenic natural occurring elements in drinking water requires sufficient data on life-long exposures. Thus, high-quality data on both spatial and temporal variation of drinking water quality are of paramount importance when assessing public health related to geogenic exposures. In addition, utilizing Danish nationwide population-based registers, we can identify the exact geographical residential location from 1978 onwards on a personal level and link this information with later health outcomes. The combinations of these unique data sources allow a longitudinal population-based assessment of the potential health impact of drinking water quality. These data are available through the National Centre for Integrated Register-based Research at Aarhus University.

Here, we’ll present an overview of the drinking water quality data on specific geogenic elements during the last almost 100 years and show how the amount of data increased since the 1980s. The aim is to combine drinking water quality data in the Danish geo-database JUPITER with the health data available at the National Centre for Integrated Register-based Research at Aarhus University (CIRRAU). Finally we will present examples where we combine the data and analyze the association between drinking water quality and human health.