Discussion of: Rapid Analytical Techniques for Drinking Water Security Investigations

AND SAMANTHA RIZAK The Water able screening authors and Security timely of of water Investigations" the assessment article for the "Rapid of presence currently (States Analytical et of available al, harmful, January Techniques techniques 2004) toxic, provided or for for pathogenic rapid Drinking a valufield Water Security Investigations" (States et al, January 2004) provided a valuable and timely assessment of currently available techniques for rapid field screening of water for the presence of harmful, toxic, or pathogenic agents. The article also provided sound generic guidance about the need for an organized and informed investigative approach toward the gathering of evidence about potentially dangerous contamination of drinking water supplies. The authors correctly summarized the challenge for assay techniques to be useful for this purpose in that the techniques must be able to "detect acute hazards for the site team (and subsequently for lab analysts) as well as provide 'presumptive' data on the nature of contaminants that may be present in the water." For the purposes of judging these capabilities, States et al highlighted the importance of assays having adequate analytical sensitivity and specificity along with low rates of false-positive (FP, rate = a) and false-negative (FN, rate = 0) responses.