Dr. Mel Suffet : Water, Eau, Agua, Acqua, 水 – Safe to Drink?

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Date/Time
Date(s) - 09/23/2016
10:30 am - 12:00 pm

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suffet_09202016Dr. Mel Suffet, Professor
Dept. of Environmental Health Sciences
UCLA, School of Public Health
Los Angeles CA 

Date: Friday Sept 23, 2016
Time: 10:30 a.m.- noon
Location: MEB S10 (3109)

Worldwide, industrial chemical spills are responsible for contaminating drinking water and requiring drinking water intakes be closed or taking severe measures such as issuing “do not use” orders to protect the public health. Many chemical spills that contaminated drinking water have noticeable odorous properties. When contaminating industrial chemicals produce odorous volatile compounds that are readily perceived by consumers, then the affected human population will be potentially exposed through both ingestion and inhalation health effects. How should a public health agency respond?

This talk will describe how Drinking Water is judged safe to drink and what happens when a chemical spill occurs. Two recent major examples will be presented to show what the response of public health officials were in Lake Wuxi, China and Charleston West Virginia, USA.

Dr. Irwin (Mel) Suffet is Professor of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Suffet is the 1983 recipient of the F. J. Zimmerman Environmental Science Award of the American Chemical Society and the 2001 A. P. Black Award for lifetime achievement in drinking water quality research from the American Water Works Association. Dr. Suffet teaches on topics concerning the transport and fate and treatment of organic compounds in aquatic systems, and analytical and environmental chemistry.