Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water: A guide to their public health consequences, monitoring and management Edited by Ingrid Chorus and Jamie Bartram E & FN Spon An imprint of Routledge London and New York First published 1999 by E & FN Spon, an imprint of Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE © 1999 WHO Printed and bound in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested. ISBN 0-419-23930-8 Also available from E & FN Spon Agricultural Pollution M. Redman Determination of Organic Compounds in Natural and Treated Waters T.R. Crompton Ecological Effects of Waste Water, 2nd edition Applied limnology and pollutant effects E.B. Welch Integrated Approaches to Water Pollution Problems Edited by J. Bau, J.D. Henriques, J. de Oliviera Raposo and J.P. Lobo Ferreira International River Water Quality Pollution and restoration Edited by G. Best, E. Niemirycz and T. Bogacka Microbiology and Chemistry for Environmental Scientists and Engineers J.N. Lester and J.W. Birkett The Coliform Index and Waterborne Disease Problems of microbial drinking water assessment C. Gleeson and N. Gray Water and the Environment Innovative issues in irrigation and drainage Edited by L.S. Pereira and J. Gowing Water and Wastewater Treatment, Fourth edition R. Bardolet Water: Economics, management and demand Edited by B. Kay, L.E.D. Smith and T. Franks Water Policy Allocation and management in practice Edited by P. Howsam and R.C. Carter Water Pollution Control A guide to the use of water quality management principles R. Helmer and I. Hespanhol A Water Quality Assessment of the Former Soviet Union Edited by V. Kimstach, M. Meybeck and E. Baroudy Water Quality Assessments, 2nd edition A guide to the use of biota, sediments and water in environmental monitoring Edited by D. Chapman Water Quality Monitoring A practical guide to the design and implementation of freshwater quality studies and monitoring programmes Edited by J. Bartram and R. Ballance Water Resources Health, environment and development Edited by B. Kay Water Wells: Monitoring, maintenance, rehabilitation Proceedings of the International Groundwater Engineering Conference, Cranfield Institute of Technology, UK Edited by P. Howsan Ordering information Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water A Guide to their Public Health Consequences, Monitoring, and Management published on behalf of WHO by: F & FN Spon 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4) 4EE Telephone: +44 171 583 9855 Fax: +44 171 843 2298 Order online: http://www.earthprint.com Table of Contents Foreword Acknowledgements Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1 Water resources 1.2 Eutrophication, cyanobacterial blooms and surface scums 1.3 Toxic cyanobacteria and other water-related health problems 1.4 Present state of knowledge 1.5 Structure and purpose of this book 1.6 References Chapter 2. Cyanobacteria in the environment 2.1 Nature and diversity 2.2 Factors affecting bloom formation 2.3 Cyanobacterial ecostrategists 2.4 Additional information 2.5 References Chapter 3. Cyanobacterial toxins 3.1 Classification 3.2 Occurrence of cyanotoxins 3.3 Production and regulation 3.4 Fate in the environment 3.5 Impact on aquatic biota 3.6 References Chapter 4. Human health aspects 4.1 Human and animal poisonings 4.2 Toxicological studies 4.3 References Chapter 5. Safe levels and safe practices 5.1 Tolerable exposures 5.2 Safe practices 5.3 Other exposure routes 5.4 Tastes and odours 5.5 References Chapter 6. Situation assessment, planning and management 6.1 The risk-management framework 6.2 Situation assessment 6.3 Management actions, the Alert Levels Framework 6.4 Planning and response 6.5 References Chapter 7. Implementation of management plans 7.1 Organisations, agencies and groups 7.2 Policy tools 7.3 Legislation, regulations, and standards 7.4 Awareness raising, communication and public participation 7.5 References Chapter 8. Preventative measures 8.1 Carrying capacity 8.2 Target values for total phosphorus within water bodies 8.3 Target values for total phosphorus inputs to water bodies 8.4 Sources and reduction of external nutrient inputs 8.5 Internal measures for nutrient and cyanobacterial control 8.6 References Chapter 9. Remedial measures 9.1 Management of abstraction 9.2 Use of algicides 9.3 Efficiency of drinking water treatment in cyanotoxin removal 9.4 Chemical oxidation and disinfection 9.5 Membrane processes and reverse osmosis 9.6 Microcystins other than microcystin-LR 9.7 Effective drinking water treatment at treatment works 9.8 Drinking water treatment for households and small community supplies 9.9 References Chapter 10. Design of monitoring programmes 10.1 Approaches to monitoring programme development 10.2 Laboratory capacities and staff training 10.3 Reactive versus programmed monitoring strategies 10.4 Sample site selection 10.5 Monitoring frequency 10.6 References Chapter 11. Fieldwork: site inspection and sampling 11.1 Planning for fieldwork 11.2 Site inspection 11.3 Sampling 11.4 Nutrients, cyanobacteria and toxins 11.5 On-site analysis 11.6 Field records 11.7 Sample preservation and transport 11.8 References Chapter 12. Determination of cyanobacteria in the laboratory 12.1 Sample handling and storage 12.2 Cyanobacterial identification 12.3 Quantification 12.4 Determination of biomass using chlorophyll a analysis 12.5 Determination of nutrient concentrations 12.6 References Chapter 13. Laboratory analysis of cyanotoxins 13.1 Sample handling and storage 13.2 Sample preparation for cyanotoxin determination and bioassays 13.3 Toxicity tests and bioassays 13.4 Analytical methods for cyanotoxins 13.5 References Foreword Concern about the effects of cyanobacteria on human health has grown in many countries in recent years for a variety of reasons. These include cases of poisoning attributed to toxic cyanobacteria and awareness of contamination of water sources (especially lakes) resulting in increased cyanobacterial growth. Cyanobacteria also continue to attract attention in part because of well-publicised incidents of animal poisoning. Outbreaks of human poisoning attributed to toxic cyanobacteria have been reported in Australia, following exposure of individuals to contaminated drinking water, and in the UK, where army recruits were exposed while swimming and canoeing. However, the only known human fatalities associated with cyanobacteria and their toxins occurred in Caruaru, Brazil, where exposure through renal dialysis led to the death of over 50 patients. Fortunately, such severe acute effects on human health appear to be rare, but little is known of the scale and nature of either long-term effects (such as tumour promotion and liver damage) or milder short-term effects, such as contact irritation. Water and health, and in particular drinking water and health, has been an area of concern to the World Health Organization (WHO) for many years. A major activity of WHO is the development of guidelines which present an authoritative assessment of the health risks associated with exposure to infectious agents and chemicals through water. Such guidelines already exist for drinking water and for the safe use of wastewater and excreta in agriculture and aquaculture, and are currently being prepared for recreational uses of water. In co-operation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), WHO is also involved in the long-term monitoring of water through the GEMS/Water Programme; and in the monitoring of water supply and sanitation services in co-operation with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The World Health Organization supports the development of national and international policies concerning water and health, and assists countries in developing capacities to establish and maintain healthy water environments, including legal frameworks, institutional structures and human resources. The first WHO publication dealing specifically with drinking water was published in 1958 as International Standards for Drinking-Water. Further editions were published in 1963 and 1971. The first edition of WHO's Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality was published in 1984-1985. It comprised three volumes: Volume 1: Recommendations; Volume 2: Health criteria and other supporting information; Volume 3: Drinking-water quality control in small-community supplies. The primary aim of the Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality is the protection of public health. The guidelines provide an assessment of the health risks associated with exposure to micro-organisms and chemicals in drinking water. Second editions of the three volumes of the guidelines were published in 1993, 1996 and 1997 respectively and addenda to Volumes 1 and 2 were published in 1998. Through ongoing review of the Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality, specific micro- organisms and chemicals are periodically evaluated and documentation relating to protection and control of drinking-water quality is prepared. The Working Group on Protection and Control of Drinking-Water Quality identified cyanobacteria as one of the most urgent areas in which guidance was required. During the development by WHO of the Guidelines for Safe Recreational-water Environments, it also became clear that health concerns related to cyanobacteria should be considered and were an area of increasing public and professional interest. This book describes the present state of knowledge regarding the impact of cyanobacteria on health through the use of water. It considers aspects of risk management and details the information needed for protecting drinking water sources and recreational water bodies from the health hazards caused by cyanobacteria and their toxins. It also outlines the state of knowledge regarding the principal considerations in the design of programmes and studies for monitoring water resources and supplies and describes the approaches and procedures used. The development of this publication was guided by the recommendations of several expert meetings concerning drinking water (Geneva, December 1995; Bad Elster, June 1996) and recreational water (Bad Elster, June 1996; St Helier, May 1997). An expert meeting in Bad Elster, April 1997, critically reviewed the literature concerning the toxicity of cyanotoxins and developed the scope and content of this book. A draft manuscript was reviewed at an editorial meeting in November 1997, and a further draft was reviewed by the working group responsible for updating the Guidelines for Drinking- water Quality in March 1998. Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water is one of a series of guidebooks concerning water management issues published by E & FN Spon on behalf of WHO. Other volumes in the series include: Water Quality Assessments (D. Chapman, Ed., Second Edition, 1996) Water Quality Monitoring (J. Bartram and R. Ballance, Eds, 1996) Water Pollution Control (R. Helmer and I. Hespanhol, Eds, 1997) It is hoped that this volume will be useful to all those concerned with cyanobacteria and health, including environmental and public health officers and professionals in the fields of water supply and management of water resources and recreational water. It should also be of interest to postgraduates in these fields as well as to those involved in freshwater ecology and special interest groups. Acknowledgements The World Health Organization wishes to express its appreciation to all those whose efforts made the production of this book possible. Special thanks are due to the editors, Dr Ingrid Chorus, German Federal Environmental Agency, Berlin, Germany, who co- ordinated the development of the book and to Dr Jamie Bartram, Division of Operational Support in Environmental Health, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland (formerly of the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, Rome, Italy), who managed the process of preparing the manuscript. An editorial advisory group assisted in guiding the development of this book, particularly through co-ordination and review of specific sections. Special thanks are due to Professor Wayne Carmichael, USA; Professor Geoffrey Codd, UK; Professor Ian Falconer, Australia; Dr Gary Jones, Australia; Dr Tine Kuiper-Goodman, Canada; and Dr Linda Lawton, UK, for their dedication and support. An international group of experts provided material and, in most cases, several authors and their collaborators contributed to each chapter. Because numerous contributions were spread over several chapters it is difficult to identify precisely the contribution made by each individual author and therefore the principal contributors are listed together below: Dr Sandra Azevedo, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Box 4.3 and Section 5.3.1) Dr Jamie Bartram, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland (Chapters 1 and 5-7) Dr Lee Bowling, Department of Land and Water Conservation, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia (Chapter 7) Dr Michael Burch, Cooperative Research Centre for Water Quality and Treatment, Salisbury, South Australia, Australia (Chapters 5, 6, 9 and 10, Section 8.5.8) Professor Wayne Carmichael, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, USA (Chapter 1, Box 4.4 and Section 5.3.3) Dr Ingrid Chorus, Institute for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene, Federal Environmental Agency, Berlin Germany (Chapters 1, 5, 8, 10 and 12) Professor Geoffrey Codd, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland (Chapters 5, 7 and 10, Section 8.5.8) Dr Mary Drikas, Australian Water Quality Centre, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia (Chapter 9) Professor Ian Falconer, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia (Chapters 4-7) Dr Jutta Fastner, Institute for Water, Soil and Air Hygiene, Federal Environmental Agency, Berlin, Germany (Chapter 11 and Figure 13.5) Dr Jim Fitzgerald, South Australian Health Commission, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia (Chapter 4) Dr Ross Gregory, Water Research Centre, Swindon, Wiltshire, England (Chapter 9) Dr Ken-Ichi Harada, Meijo University, Nagoya, Japan (Chapter 13) Dr Steve Hrudey, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (Chapter 9) Dr Gary Jones, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Land and Water), Indooroopilly, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (Chapters 1, 3, 6 and 7, Figure 5.1, Table 5.2, Box 8.3) Dr Fumio Kondo, Aichi Prefectural Institute of Public Health, Nagoya, Japan (Chapter 13) Dr Tine Kuiper-Goodman, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (Chapters 4 and 5, Box 6.1) Dr Linda Lawton, Robert Gordon University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland (Chapters 12 and 13) Dr Blahoslav Marsalek, Institute of Botany, Brno, Czech Republic (Sections 3.5.1 and 3.5.4, Chapter 12) Dr Luuc Mur, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Chapters 2 and 8) Dr Judit Padisák, Institute of Biology, University of Veszprém, Veszprém, Hungary (Chapter 12) Dr Kaarina Sivonen, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland (Chapter 3) Dr Olav Skulberg, Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Oslo, Norway (Chapters 1 and 2, Figures 2.1 and 12.1, Box 7.5) Dr Hans Utkilen, National Institute for Public Health, Oslo, Norway (Section 5.4, Chapter 11, Figure 13.2) Dr Jessica Vapnek, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy (Chapter 7) Dr Yu Shun-Zhang, Institute of Public Health, Shanghai, China (Box 5.2) Acknowledgements are also due to the following contributors: Dr Rainer Enderlein, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE), Geneva, Switzerland (Box 7.4); Dr Michelle Giddings, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (Box 6.1); Dr Nina Gjølme, National Institute for Public Health, Oslo, Norway (Figures 2.3-2.5); Dr Rita [...]... of the human health significance of cyanobacteria and individual cyanotoxins, and into practical means for assessing and controlling exposure to cyanobacteria and to cyanotoxins, is a priority A major gap also lies in the synthesis and dissemination of the available information Information concerning the efficiency of cyanotoxin removal in drinking water treatment systems is limited Especially, simple,... England Thanks are also due to Dr Deborah Chapman, the series editor, for editorial assistance, layout and production management, and to Ms Grazia Motturi and Ms Sylvaine Bassi, for secretarial and administrative assistance We are also grateful to Alan Steel for preparation of illustrations, to A Willcocks and L Willcocks for typesetting assistance and to Stephanie Dagg for preparation of the index... Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water: A guide to their public health consequences, monitoring and management Edited by Ingrid Chorus and Jamie Bartram © 1999 WHO ISBN 0-419-23930-8 Chapter 2 CYANOBACTERIA IN THE ENVIRONMENT This chapter was prepared by Luuc R Mur, Olav M Skulberg and Hans Utkilen For management of cyanobacterial hazards to human health, a basic understanding of the properties, the behaviour in. .. of algal and cyanobacterial communities is, for example, diatoms in association with rapidly growing small flagellates in winter and spring, followed by green algae in late spring and early summer, and then by species which cannot easily be eaten by zooplankton, such as dinoflagellates, desmids and large yellow-green algae (in moderately turbulent waters also diatoms) in late summer and autumn In eutrophic... provide a basis for the evaluation of status and trends for management and they facilitate international information exchange and comparison 1.3 Toxic cyanobacteria and other water-related health problems The contamination of water resources and drinking water supplies by human excreta remains a major human health concern, just as it has been for centuries By contrast, the importance of toxic substances,... tear loose and float to the surface Cyanobacteria have an impressive ability to colonise infertile substrates such as volcanic ash, desert sand and rocks (Jaag, 1945; Dor and Danin, 1996) They are extraordinary excavators, boring hollows into limestone and special types of sandstone (Weber et al., 1996) Another remarkable feature is their ability to survive extremely high and low temperatures Cyanobacteria. .. unpleasant (Jüttner, 1987) or toxic (Gorham and Carmichael, 1988) The water quality problems caused by dense populations of cyanobacteria are intricate, many and various (Skulberg, 1996b) and can have great health and economic impacts As a consequence, the negative aspects of cyanobacteria have gained research attention and public concern The properties that make the cyanobacteria generally undesirable are... 1932), and onwards to their treatment in modem textbooks (Anagnostidis and Komárek, 1985; Staley et al., 1989), the amazing combination of properties found in algae and bacteria which these organisms exhibit, have been a source of fascination and attraction for many scientists The cyanobacteria also provide an extraordinarily wide-ranging contribution to human affairs in everyday life (Tiffany, 1958) and. .. Cyanobacteria are inhabitants of hot springs (Castenholz, 1973), mountain streams (Kann, 1988), Arctic and Antarctic lakes (Skulberg, 199 6a) and snow and ice (Kol, 1968; Laamanen, 1996) The cyanobacteria also include species that run through the entire range of water types, from polysaprobic zones to katharobic waters (Van Landingham, 1982) Cyanobacteria also form symbiotic associations with animals and plants... Problems associated with cyanobacteria are likely to increase in areas experiencing population growth with a lack of concomitant sewage treatment and in regions with agricultural practices causing nutrient losses to water bodies through over-fertilisation and erosion There are important differences in algal and cyanobacterial growth between tropical and temperate areas A characteristic pattern of seasonal . Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water: A guide to their public health consequences, monitoring and management Edited by Ingrid Chorus and Jamie Bartram. national and international policies concerning water and health, and assists countries in developing capacities to establish and maintain healthy water