water purification It protects us from many diseases such as cholera, legionellosis or dysentery. This is a very necessary procedure for public health. But it is also a process that needs to be constantly reviewedsince the very substances used to produce drinking water can be toxic if not used in adequate doses. In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to by-products which are formed when some of these substances decompose or react with each other.
It was one of these by-products that just prompted the publication of a study by scientists from University of Arkansas. Its author spent 10 years researching this compound until he synthesized it and classified it as chlornitramide anion, which is chemically expressed as Cl-N-NO2-. Its toxicity has not yet been fully studied. However, it retains great similarity to some toxic substancestherefore, its presence in drinking water was of great concern to the study authors.
At this time, in connection with this study, instructions have been given to continue the study. If it is confirmed to be toxic, it will be necessary to check whether it is in dangerous doses, and if so, then review water disinfection protocols.
Stages of drinking water disinfection
We all know that drinking water contains chlorine. However, there are many purification mechanisms that use different substances.
They usually consist of three stages: one for pre-disinfection and two for disinfection in which primary and secondary disinfectant. Both preliminary and primary disinfection. They are usually carried out with chlorine.although in some cases other connections are used, e.g. chlorine dioxide. The most common thing is that even the second disinfectant is chlorine. That is, chlorine is used at all three stages.
However, it is also very often used Chloramine as a secondary disinfectant when chlorine was used as the main one. chloramine decomposition This is what gives birth to this new by-product. In the United States, where this study was conducted, this is the most common disinfection method. This is not as common in Spain, where drinking water is often obtained only with chlorine. However, this is a common enough occurrence that we also address this finding here.
What will the risks be?
In a statement, study lead author Julian Fairey recalls that there are studies linking drinking water consumption with some types of cancer in the very long term. It is unclear whether there really is a strong correlation. Cancer could also be caused by factors other than water.
However, these scientists now want to test whether the presence of this still unknown byproduct could increase the incidence of cancer. There should be no panic. Undisinfected water is infinitely more dangerous than drinking water. It is not known for sure whether there are any risks, but if there are any, they will be much milder than the generally accepted risks of drinking unsanitized water. Despite this, it is important to continue to conduct tests like the ones these scientists have just presented. This is why we must be calm. Because science does not stop there, even when something is already considered harmless.
Source: Hiper Textual
