Tools for Risk Analysis: Updating the 2006 WHO Guidelines

This chapter reviews developments since the WHO Guidelines for the safe use of wastewater in agriculture were published in 2006. The six main developments are: the recognition that the tolerable additional disease burden may be too stringent for many developing countries; the benefits of focusing on single-event infection risks as a measure of outbreak potential when evaluating risk acceptability; a more rigorous method for estimating annual risks; the availability of dose-response data for norovirus; the use of QMRA to estimate Ascaris infection risks; and a detailed evaluation of pathogen reductions achieved by produce-washing and disinfection. Application of the developments results in more realistic estimates of the pathogen reductions required for the safe use of wastewater in agriculture and consequently permits the use of simpler wastewater treatment processes.