What's in your Water?: Disinfectants Create Toxic & Genotoxic By-products

Source: Michael J. Plewa (217-333-3614; mplewa@illinois.edu)

URBANA - Although perhaps the greatest public health achievement of the 20th century was the disinfection of water, a recent study now shows that the chemicals used to purify the water we drink and use in swimming pools react with organic material in the water yielding toxic consequences.

University of Illinois geneticist Michael Plewa said that disinfection by-products (DBPs) in water are the unintended consequence of water purification. "The reason that you and I can go to a drinking fountain and not be fearful of getting cholera is because we disinfect water in the United States," he said. "But the process of disinfecting water with chlorine and chloramines and other types of disinfectants generates a class of compounds in the water that are called disinfection by-products. The disinfectant reacts with the organic material in the water and generates hundreds of different compounds. Some of these are toxic, some can cause birth defects, some are genotoxic, which damage DNA, and some we know are also carcinogenic."

The 10-year study began with an EPA grant to develop mammalian cell lines that would be used specifically to analyze the ability of these compounds to kill cells, or cytotoxicity, and the ability of these emerging disinfection by-products to cause genomic DNA damage.

"Our lab has assembled the largest toxicological data base on these emerging new DBPs. And from them we've made two fundamental discoveries that hopefully will aid the U.S. EPA in their regulatory decisions. The two discoveries are somewhat surprising," Plewa said.

The first discovery involves iodine-containing DBPs. "You get iodine primarily from sea water or underground aquifers that perhaps were associated with an ancient sea bed at one time. If there is high bromine and iodine in that water, when you disinfect these waters, you can generate the chemical conditions necessary to produce DBPs that have iodine atoms attached. And these are much more toxic and genotoxic than the regulated DBPs that currently EPA uses," he said.

Plewa said that the second discovery concerns nitrogen-containing DBPs. "Disinfectant by-products that have a nitrogen atom incorporated into the structure are far more toxic and genotoxic, and some even carcinogenic, than those DBPs that don't have nitrogen. And there are no nitrogen-containing DBPs that are currently regulated."

In addition to drinking water DBPs, Plewa said that swimming pools and hot tubs are DBP reactors. "You've got all of this organic material called 'people' - and people sweat and use sunscreen and wear cosmetics that come off in the water. People may urinate in a public pool. Hair falls into the water and then this water is chlorinated. But the water is recycled again and again so the levels of DBPs can be ten-fold higher than what you have in drinking water."

Plewa said that studies were showing higher levels of bladder cancer and asthma in people who do a lot of swimming - professional swimmers as well as athletic swimmers. These individuals have greater and longer exposure to toxic chemicals which are absorbed through the skin and inhaled.

"The big concern that we have is babies in public pools because young children and especially babies are much more susceptible to DNA damage in agents because their bodies are growing and they're replicating DNA like crazy," he said.

Some public pools have been closed because they have high levels of bacteria. "Public pools keep a high level of chlorine in the water to keep bacteria and pathogens down but very little work research is conducted on evaluating levels of generated dangerous disinfection by-products.

"The idea is to keep the pools disinfected, keep them in compliance, just as with drinking water but then use engineering techniques that reduce the levels of these toxic by-products." Plewa described another project he is working on as a researcher with a National Science Foundation Center called WaterCAMPWS at the University of Illinois. "We're working with engineers and chemists to develop new technologies that will disinfect water, that will desalinate water, that will remove pharmaceuticals from water but in so doing, don't generate by-products that are even more toxic than the things you're trying to remove."

Ironically, the DBPs that are regulated by the EPA tend to be some of the least toxic DBPs in Plewa's study. "We've found that the emerging DBPs are much more genotoxic and much more cytotoxic. But I can't fault EPA because these data were not present at the time and in fact the development of the database of over 70 DBPs has been done in concert with our colleagues at the federal EPA."

Plewa said that until new technologies are engineered to safely disinfect the water in public pools, education is needed to encourage people to bathe or shower before entering a public pool. "It's the organic material that gets in the pool that is disinfected and then recirculated over and over again. That's why we call swimming pools disinfectant by-product reactors. But by public education, by personal behavior, there should be ways that we can reduce the levels of the dissolved organic material that should reduce the level of DBPs."

Plewa, along with a team of scientists received a United States Environmental Protection Agency Science and Technology award for their paper Occurrence, genotoxicity and carcinogenicity of regulated and emerging disinfection by-products in drinking water: A review and roadmap for research. It was published in the scientific journal Mutation Research.

-30-



News writer: Debra Levey Larson
phone: 217-244-2880; email: dlarson@uiuc.edu

~~~~~~~~

WaterTech Online: New poll asks about chlorine vs. chloramine

Views: 57

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

Doc Vega posted a blog post

Through Her Disguise

I know that a lot of times in my articles it might seem that I'm down on women a lot from a man's…See More
6 hours ago
Burbia posted a video

Soros Will Never Recover..Elon AIR The whole Thing

The view on TRUMP protests as people are Democrats..CLOWN SHOW: Cory “Spartacus” Booker went on The View to take a victory lap for joining the Soros-funded a...
14 hours ago
Burbia replied to cheeki kea's discussion Tartaria
"If this was a universal language, it might be regarded as a time going back before the Tower of…"
14 hours ago
Burbia commented on Sandy's photo
Thumbnail

FB_IMG_1744012893167

"I was waiting for a trail of death to meet between Vancouver Canada and San Francisco California…"
14 hours ago
Twin City Security Fort Worth updated their profile
yesterday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
yesterday
Sandy posted a photo
yesterday
cheeki kea replied to cheeki kea's discussion Tartaria
" I think first evidence of the lost empires Language (tartarian) needs to be discovered or at…"
Sunday
cheeki kea posted a discussion
Sunday
Doc Vega's 6 blog posts were featured
Sunday
tjdavis posted a photo
Sunday
tjdavis posted a blog post
Sunday
tjdavis posted a video

Riefenstahl - Official Trailer

A captivating insight into the private estate of Leni Riefenstahl, who became world-famous with her Nazi propaganda film "Triumph of the Will" but kept denyi...
Sunday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

Price of Becoming Wise

The answers you seek are not hereLet me make that perfectly clearNow that she is no longer…See More
Saturday
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post One of Many Witnesses to the JFK Assassination Not Listed in the Warren Report
"tjdavis Thanks for your support! "
Friday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Friday
tjdavis favorited Doc Vega's blog post One of Many Witnesses to the JFK Assassination Not Listed in the Warren Report
Friday
Burbia commented on KLC's group MUSICWARS
Thursday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

The Unnerving Frequency of Disappearances on the Appalachian Trail Pt. 1

There’s another one of the cluster zones of missing persons reports that fails to render the…See More
Apr 2
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's photo
Thumbnail

Waste runs deep

"Make USAID - go away."
Apr 2

© 2025   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted