Monte-Carlo and multi-exposure assessment for the derivation of criteria for disinfection byproducts and volatile organic compounds in drinking water: Allocation factors and liter-equivalents per day.

The probability distributions of total potential doses of disinfection byproducts and volatile organic compounds via ingestion, inhalation, and dermal exposure were estimated with Monte Carlo simulations, after conducting physiologically based pharmacokinetic model simulations to takes into account the differences in availability between the three exposures. If the criterion that the 95th percentile estimate equals the TDI (tolerable daily intake) is regarded as protecting the majority of a population, the drinking water criteria would be 140 (trichloromethane), 66 (bromodichloromethane), 157 (dibromochloromethane), 203 (tribromomethane), 140 (dichloroacetic acid), 78 (trichloroacetic acid), 6.55 (trichloroethylene, TCE), and 22 μg/L (perchloroethylene). The TCE criterion was lower than the Japanese Drinking Water Quality Standard (10 μg/L). The latter would allow the intake of 20% of the population to exceed the TDI. Indirect inhalation via evaporation from water, especially in bathrooms, was the major route of exposure to compounds other than haloacetic acids (HAAs) and accounted for 1.2–9 liter-equivalents/day for the median-exposure subpopulation. The ingestion of food was a major indirect route of exposure to HAAs. Contributions of direct water intake were not very different for trihalomethanes (30–45% of TDIs) and HAAs (45–52% of TDIs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]