2nd Edition
Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water A Guide to Their Public Health Consequences, Monitoring and Management
Cyanobacterial toxins are among the hazardous substances most widely found in water. They occur naturally, but concentrations hazardous to human health are usually due to human activity. Therefore, to protect human health, managing lakes, reservoirs and rivers to prevent cyanobacterial blooms is critical.
This second edition of Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water presents the current state of knowledge on the occurrence of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins as well as their impacts on health through water-related exposure pathways, chiefly drinking-water and recreational activity. It provides scientific and technical background information to support hazard identification, assessment and prioritisation of the risks posed by cyanotoxins, and it outlines approaches for their management at each step of the water-use system. It sets out key practical considerations for developing management strategies, implementing efficient measures and designing monitoring programmes. This enables stakeholders to evaluate whether there is a health risk from toxic cyanobacteria and to mitigate it with appropriate measures.
This book is intended for those working on toxic cyanobacteria with a specific focus on public health protection. It intends to empower professionals from different disciplines to communicate and cooperate for sustainable management of toxic cyanobacteria, including public health workers, ecologists, academics, and catchment and waterbody managers.
Ingrid Chorus headed the department for Drinking-Water and Swimming-Pool Hygiene at the German Environment Agency.
Martin Welker is a limnologist and microbiologist, currently with bioMérieux in Lyon, France.
1 Introduction
[INGRID CHORUS AND MARTIN WELKER]
2 Cyanobacterial toxins
Hepatotoxic cyclic peptides – microcystins and nodularins
[JUTTA FASTNER AND ANDREW HUMPAGE]
Cylindrospermopsins
[ANDREW HUMPAGE AND JUTTA FASTNER]
Anatoxin-a and analogues
[EMANUELA TESTAI]
Saxitoxins or Paralytic Shellfish Poisons
[EMANUELA TESTAI]
Anatoxin-a(S)
[EMANUELA TESTAI]
Marine Dermatotoxins
[NICHOLAS J. OSBORNE]
β-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA)
[NEIL CHERNOFF, ELISABETH J. FAASSEN, AND DONNA J. HILL]
Cyanobacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS)
[MARTIN WELKER]
Cyanobacterial taste and odour compounds in water
[TRIANTAFYLLOS KALOUDIS]
Unspecified toxicity and other cyanobacterial metabolites
[ANDREW HUMPAGE AND MARTIN WELKER]
3 Introduction to cyanobacteria
[LETICIA VIDAL, ANDREAS BALLOT, SANDRA M. F. O. AZEVEDO,
JUDIT PADISÁK, AND MARTIN WELKER]
4 Understanding the occurrence of cyanobacteria
and cyanotoxins
[BASTIAAN W. IBELINGS, RAINER KURMAYER, SANDRA M. F. O. AZEVEDO,
SUSANNA A. WOOD, INGRID CHORUS, AND MARTIN WELKER]
5 Exposure to cyanotoxins:
Understanding it and short-term interventions to prevent it
Drinking-water
[ANDREW HUMPAGE AND DAVID CUNLIFFE]
Recreation and occupational activities
[INGRID CHORUS AND EMANUELA TESTAI]
Food
[BASTIAAN W. IBELINGS, AMANDA FOSS, AND INGRID CHORUS]
Renal dialysis
[SANDRA M. F. O. AZEVEDO]
Cyanobacteria as dietary supplements
[DANIEL DIETRICH]
6 Assessing and managing cyanobacterial risks
in water-use systems
[INGRID CHORUS AND RORY MOSES MCKEOWN]
7 Assessing and controlling the risk of cyanobacterial
blooms: Nutrient loads from the catchment
[INGRID CHORUS AND MATTHIAS ZESSNER]
8 Assessing and controlling the risk of cyanobacterial
blooms: Waterbody conditions
[MIKE BURCH, JUSTIN BROOKES, AND INGRID CHORUS]
9 Managing cyanotoxin risks at the drinking-water offtake
[JUSTIN BROOKES, MIKE BURCH, GESCHE GRÜTZMACHER,
AND SONDRA KLITZKE]
10 Controlling cyanotoxin occurrence: Drinking-water
treatment
[GAYLE NEWCOMBE, LIONEL HO, AND JOSÉ CAPELO NETO]
11 Planning monitoring programmes for cyanobacteria
and cyanotoxins
[MARTIN WELKER, INGRID CHORUS, BLAKE A. SCHAEFFER,
AND ERIN URQUHART]
12 Fieldwork: Site inspection and sampling
[MARTIN WELKER AND HEATHER RAYMOND]
13 Laboratory analyses of cyanobacteria
and water chemistry
[JUDIT PADISÁK, INGRID CHORUS, MARTIN WELKER,
BLAHOSLAV MARŠÁLEK, AND RAINER KURMAYER]
14 Laboratory analysis of cyanobacterial toxins
and bioassays
[LINDA A. LAWTON, JAMES S. METCALF, BOJANA ŽEGURA, RALF JUNEK,
MARTIN WELKER, ANDREA TÖRÖKNÉ, AND LUDĚK BLÁHA]
15 Public health surveillance, public communication
and participation
[LESLEY V. D’ANGLADA]
Biography
Martin Welker started his career as a plankton ecologist at the Institute of Freshwater Ecology, Berlin. His PhD thesis focused on cyanobacteria and their toxins, with a particular emphasis on the release and degradation of microcystins by biotic and abiotic processes. As a post-doc at the Technical University of Berlin and Institute Pasteur, Paris, he explored the diversity of cyanobacterial metabolites and their biosynthesis. In 2006, Martin joined AnagnosTec, contributing to the development of microbial identification systems for clinical diagnostics. In 2010, Martin joined bioMérieux as senior scientist where he works on clinical microbiological diagnostics and research.
Ingrid Chorus completed her PhD at the Technical University, Berlin, supporting a collaborative ecosystem study of a highly eutrophic urban lake, and in the 1980’s, she studied the restoration of lakes to from heavy eutrophication. In 1991, Ingrid became head of the German Federal Environment Agency’s unit on drinking-water resources and began her focus on cyanotoxin research and management. From 2007 until 2018, she led the agency’s Department for Drinking-Water and Swimming-Pool Hygiene. A key focus of her work was developing and implementing the WHO Water Safety Plan approach, particularly towards catchment and waterbody management.
