High‐Quality Water Production and Viral Disease

Improvements in analytical methods have created a wide range between the ideal water and the quality acceptable under the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Drinking Water Standards, which define the borderline between a tolerable water and one that is unacceptable. Within this range certain water treatment plants consistently produce water of superior quality, but others barely meet the minimum levels. This article examines the reasons for the characteristic differences in results obtained, and explores their relation to viral disease incidence. The article includes a discussion by Richard L. Woodward of the Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center, Cincinnati, Ohio. He makes the point that, far from quarreling with Hudson's principal thesis, much more information and careful study are needed before the significance of water in endemic infectious hepatitis can be determined.