Anses Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire Alimentation Environnement Travail

Nancy Laboratory for Hydrology

The Nancy laboratory, with its 22 members of staff, specialises in water for human consumption and water entering the food chain. It contributes to ensuring its quality in health terms.

It provides scientific and technical support to the French Directorate General for Health (Direction générale de la santé) and its decentralised departments.

It carries out the activities of a reference laboratory:

- by processing approval applications from water-related health control laboratories
- by running the national network of specialist laboratories
- by supporting decentralised departments during crisis situations
- by conducting national prevalence campaigns on non-regulated substances

It participates in drawing up guidelines and health standards for water

It participates in European expert groups

It participates in the assessment of risks related to water, its composition and its treatment and distribution processes

It processes requests for the importing of bottled natural mineral water

The laboratory also conducts chemical and microbiological research on water

Assessment of plant protection product residues on the quality of water resources for human consumption

This subject is developed in conjunction with the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) as part of the food hygiene topic.
The quality of water in the water supply network is studied at three levels:

In order to qualify the water produced by farming practices at plot level, it is necessary to:

- devise methods for measuring more than 70 pesticide molecules present in low concentrations
- devise methods for sampling the water produced by agricultural plots taking into account their contamination by pesticides

- study the residues of pesticides used on previous crops, in the water produced by a plot as a function of past and present crop systems and soil type

Qualify the water produced by farming practices in the catchment basin supplying raw water to the Moselle river used for producing drinking water

- study the link between the quality of the water produced by a plot and the quality of the water produced by a series of plots in a micro-catchment area

- develop an extrapolation method for the catchment basin

Monitor the effect on pesticide degradation of buffer zones at agricultural plot outlets upstream of the raw Moselle river water used for producing water for human consumption: a study of 10 plots

Bottled water: assessment of migratory phenomena in water packaging materials

In accordance with European regulations, spring and mineral water producers have been responsible since 2005 for demonstrating the harmlessness and stability of the materials used for their packaging.
Formerly, these materials had to receive authorisation from the French Ministry of Health following tests carried out exclusively by the Nancy laboratory.
With 30 years of expertise and experience in material approval, the Nancy laboratory studies the migration of the compounds found in materials and assesses their toxicological impact on water quality. This work will ensure the safety of migrating compounds in particular.

Study of disinfection by-products(1) in drinking water supply networks

The laboratory assesses the concentration levels of disinfection by-products (DBPs) (1) in drinking water distribution networks, together with the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS).
This study will help improve the measurement of population exposure to DBPs, a prerequisite for health impact studies. By improving knowledge about DBPs, it will also help to optimise water treatment and distribution systems.
The research programme is examining:
- the establishment of a predictive model for changes in DBP concentrations
- the assessment of population exposure measurement methods

(1) Disinfection by-products are generated following chemical reactions by chlorine, ozone or chlorine dioxide used to make water drinkable.

May 2010