The plain, hard truth about pathogen monitoring

Pathogen monitoring has concerned microbiologists for nearly a century. Ove r several years, numerous factors have inflated the value of pathogen monit oring for public health protection and led to such developments as the prom ulgation of the information Collection Rule (ICR). Eighteen months of ICR d ata have only served to underscore the monitoring method's limitations. Met hods 1622 and 1623 represent significant improvements but still fall short of providing information useful for compliance monitoring or public health decision-making. To illustrate the shortcomings of pathogen. monitoring, th e authors cite recent cases in which poor-quality analyses contributed to t he creation. of drinking water crises where none, In fact, existed. The aut hors propose that pathogen monitoring for protecting public health be repla ced by alternative strategies such as optimizing treatment, and maintaining water quality throughout storage and distribution.