An Inclusive Study Of The Presence Of The Disinfection By-Products In Greek Drinking Water

The use of various disinfectants creates potential risks for public health since disinfection by-products (DBPs) are formed during this process. Water chlorination leads to the formation of a wide range of halogenated compounds, most common of them are trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetonitriles (HANs), haloacetic acids (HAAs), chloropicrin (CHP), halogenated ketons (HKs) and chloral hydrate (CH). On the other hand the use of ozone as a disinfection agent for water contains bromide ion, leads to the formation of bromate, which has been considered by the both World Health Organization (WHO) and US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) as a potential carcinogen, even at very low concentrations (at mu g/l levels).The aim of this work was to study the presence of the disinfection by-products with respect to the initial quality of the untreated water. By using the Grob closed loop stripping analysis technique a wide variety of organic disinfection by-products was determined, in finished drinking water of 15 important cities of Greece distributed in the southern, northern, west continental land and in the islands of Aegean and Ionian Seas and by using ion chromatography bromate was determined in bottled water from all over Greece. Although the concentrations of the organic DBPs were lower that the Maximum contamination Level, the concentrations of the bromate in many cases were far too high. In chlorinated drinking water of coastal cities brominated DBPs were most abundant than their chlorinated homologues due to the higher bromide concentration in raw waters of these areas. In coastal areas were also determined the higher concentrations of the bromate due to the higher concentrations of the bromide ion.