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Carneiro RCV, Wang C, Yu J, O'Keefe SF, Duncan SE, Gallagher CD, Burlingame GA, Dietrich AM. Check-if-apply approach for consumers and utilities to communicate about drinking water aesthetics quality. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 753:141776. [PMID: 32911162 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141776] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2020] [Revised: 08/13/2020] [Accepted: 08/16/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Globally, consumers judge their drinking water through its aesthetic qualities because tastes, odors, and appearances are readily detectable by untrained consumers. Consumer feedback is critical to the water industry for efficient resolution of aesthetic water quality issues, although consumer descriptions of taste and odor issues can sometimes be unfocused or confusing. A user-friendly approach can facilitate consumer communications to utilities in the challenging task of describing drinking water taste and odor issues. The purpose of this study was to develop a list of taste and odor descriptors and test a novel "check-if-apply" approach to describe drinking water quality. The final list contained 28 individual and/or groups of descriptors. 75 participants tested water samples impacted by various tastants or odorants: duplicate samples of chloraminated tap water, tap water with heptanal, tap water with 2-methylisoborneol (MIB), tap water with NaCl, bottled water, and bottled water with CuSO4. Participants used a 9-point hedonic scale (1 = 'dislike extremely'; 9 = 'like extremely') to rate overall liking of each sample, and they used the check-if-apply list to describe the taste or odor. Participants also answered a brief questionnaire and used a 5-point scale (1 = 'very difficult'; 5 = 'very easy') to evaluate their experience using the check-if-apply list. Significant differences were observed in acceptability and sensory profile of samples (p-value <0.05). Tap water with MIB had the lowest acceptability mean score (3.43 ± 1.74), while flavorless bottled water had the highest acceptability mean score (6.23 ± 1.47). 'Salty', 'metallic', 'chemical' and 'musty/earthy' were the dominant descriptors for NaCl, CuSO4, heptanal, and MIB, respectively. Most participants (81%) found the check-if-apply list as 'somewhat easy' to 'very easy' to use (mean = 3.44 ± 1.07) and suggested it as a user-friendly lexicon for consumers and utilities to communicate about water quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renata C V Carneiro
- Food Science and Technology, Virginia Tech, 1230 Washington Street SW, 402 HABB1, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
| | - Chunmiao Wang
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100085, China.
| | - Jiawei Yu
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100085, China.
| | - Sean F O'Keefe
- Food Science and Technology, Virginia Tech, 1230 Washington Street SW, 402 HABB1, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
| | - Susan E Duncan
- Food Science and Technology, Virginia Tech, 1230 Washington Street SW, 402 HABB1, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
| | - Conor D Gallagher
- Computer Science, Virginia Tech, 220 Hancock Hall, 490 Old Turner Street, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
| | - Gary A Burlingame
- Bureau of Laboratory Services, Philadelphia Water Department, 1500 E. Hunting Park Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19124, United States.
| | - Andrea M Dietrich
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 418 Durham Hall, 1145 Perry Street, MC 0246, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
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Sain AE, Dietrich AM, Smiley E, Gallagher DL. Assessing human exposure and odor detection during showering with crude 4-(methylcyclohexyl)methanol (MCHM) contaminated drinking water. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2015; 538:298-305. [PMID: 26311585 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.08.050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2015] [Revised: 08/10/2015] [Accepted: 08/11/2015] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
In 2014, crude (4-methylcyclohexyl)methanol (MCHM) spilled, contaminating the drinking water of 300,000 West Virginians and requiring "do not use" orders to protect human health. When the spill occurred, known crude MCHM physicochemical properties were insufficient to predict human inhalation and ingestion exposures. Objectives are (1) determine Henry's Law Constants (HLCs) for 4-MCHM isomers at 7, 25, 40, and 80°C using gas chromatography; (2) predict air concentrations of 4-MCHM and methyl-4-methylcyclohexanecarboxylate (MMCHC) during showering using an established shower model; (3) estimate human ingestion and inhalation exposure to 4-MCHM and MMCHC; and (4) determine if predicted air 4-MCHM exceeded odor threshold concentrations. Dimensionless HLCs of crude cis- and trans-4-MCHM were measured to be 1.42×10(-4)±6% and 3.08×10(-4)±3% at 25°C, respectively, and increase exponentially with temperature as predicted by the van't Hoff equation. Shower air concentrations for cis- and trans-4-MCHM are predicted to be 0.089 and 0.390ppm-v respectively after 10min, exceeding the US EPA's 0.01ppm-v air screening level during initial spill conditions. Human exposure doses were predicted using measured drinking water and predicted shower air concentrations and found to greatly exceed available guidance levels in the days directly following the spill. Odors would be rapidly detected by 50% of individuals at aqueous concentrations below analytical gas chromatographic detection limits. MMCHC, a minor odorous component (0.935%) of crude MCHM, is also highly volatile and therefore is predicted to contribute to inhalation exposures and odors experienced by consumers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda E Sain
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
| | - Andrea M Dietrich
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States; Food Science and Technology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
| | - Elizabeth Smiley
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
| | - Daniel L Gallagher
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
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Dietrich AM, Phetxumphou K, Gallagher DL. Systematic tracking, visualizing, and interpreting of consumer feedback for drinking water quality. WATER RESEARCH 2014; 66:63-74. [PMID: 25181617 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2014.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2014] [Revised: 08/01/2014] [Accepted: 08/05/2014] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
Consumer feedback and complaints provide utilities with useful data about consumer perceptions of aesthetic water quality in the distribution system. This research provides a systematic approach to interpret consumer complaint water quality data provided by four water utilities that recorded consumer complaints, but did not routinely process the data. The utilities tended to write down a myriad of descriptors that were too numerous or contained a variety of spellings so that electronic "harvesting" was not possible and much manual labor was required to categorize the complaints into majors areas, such as suggested by the Drinking Water Taste and Odor Wheel or existing check-sheets. When the consumer complaint data were categorized and visualized using spider (or radar) and run-time plots, major taste, odor, and appearance patterns emerged that clarified the issue and could provide guidance to the utility on the nature and extent of the problem. A caveat is that while humans readily identify visual issues with the water, such as color, cloudiness, or rust, describing specific tastes and odors in drinking water is acknowledged to be much more difficult for humans to achieve without training. This was demonstrated with two utility groups and a group of consumers identifying the odors of orange, 2-methylisoborneol, and dimethyl trisulfide. All three groups readily and succinctly identified the familiar orange odor. The two utility groups were much more able to identify the musty odor of 2-methylisoborneol, which was likely familiar to them from their work with raw and finished water. Dimethyl trisulfide, a garlic-onion odor associated with sulfur compounds in drinking water, was the least familiar to all three groups, although the laboratory staff did best. These results indicate that utility personnel should be tolerant of consumers who can assuredly say the water is different, but cannot describe the problem. Also, it indicates that a T&O program at a utility would benefit from identification of aesthetic issues in water.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea M Dietrich
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 418 Durham Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0246, USA; Department of Food Science and Technology, Virginia Tech, 360 Duck Pond Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
| | - Katherine Phetxumphou
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 418 Durham Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0246, USA
| | - Daniel L Gallagher
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 418 Durham Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0246, USA
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Whelton AJ, Dietrich AM, Gallagher DL, Roberson JA. Using customer feedback for improved water quality and infrastructure monitoring. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2007. [DOI: 10.1002/j.1551-8833.2007.tb08081.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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