CHAMPAIGN, IL — A recently discovered disinfection byproduct (DBP) found in drinking water treated with chloramines is the most toxic ever found, a scientist at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana said in a story reported by Medical News Today.
The discovery raises health-related questions regarding an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plan to encourage all US water treatment facilities to adopt chlorine alternatives, Michael J. Plewa, a genetic toxicologist, told the medical journal. "This research says that when you go to alternatives, you may be opening a Pandora's box of new DBPs, and these unregulated DBPs may be much more toxic, by orders of magnitude, than the regulated ones we are trying to avoid."
Plewa and colleagues, three of them with the EPA, reported on the structure and toxicity of five iodoacids found in chloramines-treated water in Corpus Christi, TX, in this month's issue of Environmental Science & Technology. The findings, have led some in the water treatment industry to call for a delay of EPA's Stage 2 rule aimed at reducing the amount of previously identified toxic DBPs occurring in chlorine-treated water, the article said.
"The iodoacids may be the most toxic family of DBPs to date," Plewa said in the article. One of the five detailed in the study, iodoacetic acid, is the most toxic and DNA-damaging to mammalian cells in tests of known DBPs, he added.
The DBPs in Corpus Christi's water were found as part of an EPA national occurrence survey of selected public water treatment plants done in 2002. The survey reported on the presence of 50 high-priority DBPs based on their carcinogenic potential. The report, published in April, also identified 28 new DBPs, the journal said.
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