2. Academic Validation
  3. Occurrence and Comparative Toxicity of Haloacetaldehyde Disinfection Byproducts in Drinking Water

Occurrence and Comparative Toxicity of Haloacetaldehyde Disinfection Byproducts in Drinking Water

  • Environ Sci Technol. 2015 Dec 1;49(23):13749-59. doi: 10.1021/es506358x.
Clara H Jeong 1,  Cristina Postigo 2,  Susan D Richardson 3,  Jane Ellen Simmons 4,  Susana Y Kimura,  Benito J Mariñas,  Damia Barcelo 2 5,  Pei Liang 6,  Elizabeth D Wagner 1,  Michael J Plewa 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.
  • 2 Water and Soil Quality Research Group, Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC) , Barcelona, Barcelona 08034, Spain.
  • 3 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina , Columbia, South Carolina 29208, United States.
  • 4 National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, United States.
  • 5 Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Parc Científic i Tecnològic de la Universitat de Girona, 17003 Girona, Girona, Spain.
  • 6 Department of Chemistry, Central China Normal University , Wuhan, Hubei 430079, P.R. China.
PMID: 25942416 DOI: 10.1021/es506358x
Abstract

The introduction of drinking water disinfection greatly reduced waterborne diseases. However, the reaction between disinfectants and natural organic matter in the source water leads to an unintended consequence, the formation of drinking water disinfection byproducts (DBPs). The haloacetaldehydes (HALs) are the third largest group by weight of identified DBPs in drinking water. The primary objective of this study was to analyze the occurrence and comparative toxicity of the emerging HAL DBPs. A new HAL DBP, iodoacetaldehyde (IAL) was identified. This study provided the first systematic, quantitative comparison of HAL toxicity in Chinese hamster ovary cells. The rank order of HAL cytotoxicity is tribromoacetaldehyde (TBAL) ≈ chloroacetaldehyde (CAL) > dibromoacetaldehyde (DBAL) ≈ bromochloroacetaldehyde (BCAL) ≈ dibromochloroacetaldehyde (DBCAL) > IAL > bromoacetaldehyde (BAL) ≈ bromodichloroacetaldehyde (BDCAL) > dichloroacetaldehyde (DCAL) > trichloroacetaldehyde (TCAL). The HALs were highly cytotoxic compared to other DBP chemical classes. The rank order of HAL genotoxicity is DBAL > CAL ≈ DBCAL > TBAL ≈ BAL > BDCAL>BCAL ≈ DCAL>IAL. TCAL was not genotoxic. Because of their toxicity and abundance, further research is needed to investigate their mode of action to protect the public health and the environment.

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