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Meeting in Canada: Chlorinated vs. Chloraminated Drinking Water: Toxicity-Based Identification of Disinfection By-Products Using ESI-MS and ESI-MS/MS
Citation:
RICHARDSON, S. D., F. G. CRUMLEY, F. Fasano, M. J. Plewa, E. D. Wagner, T. H. Mize, P. Angel, R. Orlando, L. N. Williamson, AND M. G. Bartlett. Meeting in Canada: Chlorinated vs. Chloraminated Drinking Water: Toxicity-Based Identification of Disinfection By-Products Using ESI-MS and ESI-MS/MS. Presented at Canadian Society of Chemistry Conference, Edmonton, AB, CANADA, May 27 - 29, 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
Characterize risks associated with drinking water sources, treatment, distribution, and use.
Description:
Drinking water disinfection by-products (DBPs) are of concern because epidemiologic studies have shown that they are associated with bladder cancer and adverse reproductive/developmental effects in human populations. There is almost no information on high molecular weight DBPs (> 1000 Da), which are indicated to comprise >50% of the total organic halogen from chlorinated drinking water. We used a bioassay directed approach to focus identification work on the most toxicologically important DBPs. To this end, drinking water was collected from full-scale treatment plants that use chlorine or chloramines as disinfectants, and this drinking water was fractionated initially according to molecular size (through the use of ultrafiltration membranes). Mammalian cell acute genotoxicity and cytotoxicity assays were used to determine the toxicity of the fractions, and electrospray ionization (ESI)-mass spectrometry (MS) and ESI-MSIMS were used to obtain structural information on the DBPs in those fractions. Genotoxicity results of the molecular weight fractions of chlorinated and chloraminated water revealed the <1K Da fraction to be the most genotoxic. The cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of the >5K Da fraction was the least toxic.