The ready availability of carbon through the exploitation of hydrocarbon oil reserves over the past century has lead to a vast amount of organic compounds being introduced into the environment either through the use of oil in fuels or the development and production of other chemical products by industry. Literally tens of thousands of synthetic organic chemicals have been and continue to be developed. Many organic chemicals are known to have potential human health impacts and drinking-water quality standard listings developed. These listings have been continually added to and revised as new toxicological data and chemical products are developed
