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IDENTIFICATION OF DISINFECTION BY-PRODUCTS IN SWIMMING POOL WATER
Citation:
Richardson, S D., A D. Thruston Jr., AND F G. Crumley. IDENTIFICATION OF DISINFECTION BY-PRODUCTS IN SWIMMING POOL WATER. Presented at 52nd American Society for Mass Spectrometry Conference, Nashville, TN, May 23-27, 2004.
Impact/Purpose:
(1) Use toxicity-based approach to identify DBPs that show the greatest toxic response. (2) Comprehensively identify DBPs formed by different disinfectant regimes for the 'Four Lab Study'. (3) Determine the mechanisms of formation for potentially hazardous bromonitromethane DBPs.
Description:
In order to kill harmful pathogens, swimming pool water is treated with a disinfectant, such as chlorine or ozone. One of the most commonly used disinfectants is stabilized chlorine (typically trichloro-S-triazinetrione). Trichloro-S-triazinetrione reacts in water to form one mole of cyanuric acid and 3 moles of hypochlorous acid (the active disinfectant). While swimming pools have been disinfected with some form of chlorine for many years, there has been no previous work to comprehensively identify disinfection by-products (DBPs) in swimming pool water. Trihalomethanes have been found previously in pool water and in the blood and exhaled breath of swimmers. In this study, we used GC/MS to comprehensively identify by-products in chlorinated swimming pools to determine what chemicals swimmers are exposed to.