Human Health Water Quality Criteria and Methods for Toxics
Pollutants can harm people’s health when they drink water and/or eat fish and shellfish from contaminated water bodies, such as lakes, rivers and estuaries. Based on the latest science, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops human health criteria documents that provide scientific information on the human health effects of the pollutants as well as the national recommended levels of pollutants in water (criteria), which, if not exceeded, are expected to protect against adverse human health effects. The EPA develops national recommended human health criteria for states and authorized Tribes to consider when adopting water quality standards.
2024 Draft Human Health Water Quality Criteria for PFAS
The EPA has developed draft national recommended human health water quality criteria for PFOA, PFOS and PFBS. These draft criteria reflect the latest scientific information, including final health toxicity values, draft bioaccumulation factors, draft relative source contributions, and the EPA's most recent water ingestion rates.
2015 EPA Updated Ambient Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Human Health
In 2015, the EPA published updated national recommended water quality criteria for human health for 94 chemical pollutants to reflect the latest scientific information, including updated fish consumption rate, body weight, drinking water intake, health toxicity values, bioaccumulation factors, and relative source contributions. The EPA revised the criteria documents based on written public comments on the draft updated human health criteria and published responses to those comments.
- Fact Sheet: Human Health Ambient Water Quality Criteria: 2015 Update (pdf)
- Federal Register Notice: Final Updated Ambient Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Human Health
- View public comments and other supporting documents on regulations.gov by searching for Docket Number EPA–HQ–OW–2014–0135
- EPA Response to Public Comments (pdf)
- Table comparing EPA's updated 2015 final human health criteria to previous criteria (pdf)
- Table Summarizing Updated Input Values for EPA's 2015 Final Updated Human Health Criteria (pdf)
- Estimated Fish Consumption Rates for the U.S. Population and Selected Subpopulations (NHANES 2003-2010) (pdf)
- Estimation Program Interface (EPI) Suite – Information, Program Download
- 2015 National Bioaccumulation Factors – Supplemental Information Document (January 2016)
- 2015 National Bioaccumulation Factors – Supplemental Information Table (Excel) (January 2016)
2002 National Recommended Human Health Criteria
In 2002, the EPA published an updated compilation of its national recommended water quality criteria for 158 pollutants. The EPA's water quality criteria provide recommendations to states and Tribes authorized to establish water quality standards under the Clean Water Act. Additionally, the EPA developed a criteria calculation matrix which provides: cancer potency factors, reference doses, relative source contributions, fish intake values, and equations used to derive the 2002 human health criteria.
- National Recommended Human Health Criteria: 2002 (pdf)
- Human Health Criteria Calculation Matrix (pdf)
2000 EPA Methodology for Deriving Ambient Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Human Health
The EPA’s Methodology for Deriving Ambient Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Human Health is used in the development of the agency's recommended criteria and offered as guidance for states and Tribes in developing their own criteria.
- Fact Sheet: Methodology for Deriving Ambient Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Human Health - Revised Methodology (2000)
- Federal Register Notice: Revisions to the Methodology for Deriving Ambient Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Human Health (2000)
- Methodology for Deriving Ambient Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Human Health (2000) (pdf)
- Human Health Methodology Technical Support Documents
- Estimated Fish Consumption Rates for the U.S. Population and Selected Subpopulations (NHANES 2003-2010) (pdf)
- Human Health Ambient Water Quality Criteria and Fish Consumption Rates Frequently Asked Questions (pdf)