Objective To understanding the residents' habit to purchase and use purified water from automatic water dispenser for providing a guidance in public health education.
Methods A survey was conducted for 1405 families in Pudong New Area from June 2008 to January 2009, samples for bacterial counting were collected from the inner wall of the water container in those families.
Results The results showed that 20.1% of the families had chosen to buy water from automatic water dispenser. The water from automatic water dispenser was mainly used for drinking, and 92.2% of the families had the behavior of drinking the water directly without boiling. For the water usage period, 68.2% of the families were using more than 2 days. About 37.8% of the families cleaned the container after each use, and only 23.3% of the families sterilized it after each use. In the families who sterilized the containers, 50.4% of the families sterilized the mouth and the outer wall of the container, and did not take any disinfection measure for the inner wall of the container. Results showed that detection rate of total number of bacteria, mold, and coliform was 94.3%, 72.7% and 2.1% on inner wall of the containers.
Conclusion Inspection for guarantee the quality of water should be strengthened by the hygiene authority; and the instruction on hygiene to the users for help them maintain good waterdrinking habits should reinforced simultaneously.
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