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MIXTURES FEASIBILITY STUDY
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose of this effort is to assess the feasibility of studying drinking water mixtures and to develop a strategy for short- and long-term research to assess the potential toxicity associated with exposure to complex mixtures of DBPs. This research may provide very valuable information on the relative risks of different disinfected waters which may be useful if the results from epidemiology studies are inconclusive. Assessing the relative risks from different disinfected waters is important when attempting to determine whether shifting to alternative disinfectants will present more or less risks to consumers.
Description:
A number of studies have been conducted to address questions concerning the toxicity of "real world" mixtures of DBPs. These studies, which used either concentrates of drinking water or humic acid preparations treated with various disinfectants, were largely negative and had a number of technical limitations. A few studies have evaluated mixtures of drinking water contaminants such as pesticides and other organics, but research on defined mixtures of DBPs is lacking. Little is known about the possible toxicologic interactions of individual DBPs in a mixture, i.e., whether their toxicity is additive, as is the current default assumption, or if their toxicity is either more or less than additive. To address the many issues relating to toxicology, sample preparation, chemical analysis and assessment, an integrated, cross- disciplinary research effort is necessary.