WHO book examines calcium and magnesium in water

The desalination industry spends a lot of its time removing calcium and magnesium from water, so a book on the role and possible health benefits of these minerals should be of great interest.

Calcium and Magnesium in Drinking-water: Public health significance documents the outputs of an unprecedented group of experts assembled by the World Health Organization to address this question. It includes their comprehensive consensus view on what is known and what is not about the role and possible health benefit of calcium and magnesium in drinking water

Also included is a series of chapters each authored by internationally renowned experts reviewing the state of the art in different aspects, including:

  • global dietary calcium and magnesium intakes;
  • the contribution of drinking water to calcium and magnesium intake;
  • health significance of calcium and magnesium;
  • role of drinking-water in relation to bone metabolism;
  • epidemiological studies and the association of cardiovascular disease risks with water hardness and magnesium in particular;
  • water production, technical issues and economics.
  • WHO believes that climate change and other ongoing changes will increase the use of ‘high tech’ treatments such as desalination and wastewater reclamation, and thinks that the issue will be of increasing future importance.

    The book is downloadable as a pdf file.