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Most consumers of drinking water in the United States know that chemicals are used in treatment processes to ensure that the water is safe to drink. But they may not know that using some of these chemicals, like chlorine, can also lead to the formation of unregulated toxic byproducts.
Johns Hopkins Environmental Health and Engineering Professor Carsten Prasse proposes a new approach to assess drinking water quality that could result in cleaner, safer taps.
“We are exposing people in the United States to these chemicals without even knowing what they are doing,” Prasse said. “I’m not saying chlorination isn’t important in keeping our drinking water safe. But there are unintended consequences that we need to address and the public needs to know. We could be doing more than we are doing.”
Of the disinfection byproducts, only 11 compounds are currently regulated in drinking water, according to his article published in the journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Environmental sciences: processes and impacts. This is in stark contrast to the more than 700 disinfection by-products that have so far been identified in chlorinated drinking water, he said.
Prasse said the number of disinfection byproducts that are regulated in drinking water has not changed since the 1990s, despite clear scientific evidence for the presence of other toxic compounds.
The existing approach to assessing chemicals in drinking water is extremely cumbersome and based on often outdated methods, he said. For example, the toxicity of chemicals is currently being assessed by expensive and time-consuming animal studies.
Applying those same methods to the growing number of chemicals in drinking water would not be economically feasible, Prasse said. At a minimum, he added, new methods are needed to identify the chemicals of most concern.
Prasse suggests casting a larger net to capture a more diverse mix of chemicals in the water samples. “Reactivity-directed analysis” can provide a broader reading of what is present in drinking water by targeting the larger class of toxic chemicals called “organic electrophiles”.
“This method can help us prioritize chemicals that we need to pay more attention to with new regulations and possible new limits while saving time and resources,” said Prasse.
This new approach, which takes advantage of recent advances in the fields of analytical chemistry and molecular toxicology, identifies toxicants based on their reactivity with biomolecules such as amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The new approach simulates this process to identify toxic chemicals in drinking water.
“We know that the toxicity of many chemicals is caused by their reaction with proteins or DNA that alter their function and can lead, for example, to cancer,” Prasse said.
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Journalists wishing to speak with Prasse can contact Doug Donovan at 443-462-2947 or [email protected].
Johns Hopkins University press releases are available online, as is information for journalists. To set up a video or audio interview with a Johns Hopkins expert, contact a media representative mentioned above or visit our studio webpage. Find more Johns Hopkins stories on the Hub.
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