HQ Team
November 23, 2024: A study has finally identified a previously unknown chemical, chloronitramide anion, lurking in drinking water across the United States, a mystery that has persisted for over 40 years.
Chloramine
This compound is a by-product of chloramine, a disinfectant commonly used in municipal water systems to eliminate pathogens. Researchers have detected levels of chloronitramide as high as 100 micrograms per litre, exceeding regulatory limits for similar by-products, which are typically set between 60 to 80 micrograms per litre.
Public water supplies have been treated with various chemicals to kill pathogens in drinking water for almost a century. Inorganic chloramines, like monochloramine (NH2Cl) and dichloramine (NHCl2), have been widely used for this purpose. Scientists believe that these chloramines produce elusive chemical by-products, including potential nitrogen-containing compounds with unknown toxicity.
Health risks
The research team, led by Julian Fairey from the University of Arkansas, utilized advanced techniques such as mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to isolate and analyze this elusive compound. Despite its identification, the potential health risks associated with chloronitramide remain largely unknown. While some experts express caution due to its structural similarities to other toxic molecules, others suggest that existing safety protocols for treated water should still be adequate.
The discovery has sparked urgent calls for toxicological studies to determine whether the compound poses any real danger to public health. Approximately 113 million Americans consume water treated with chloramines, making the implications of this finding significant
“Its toxicity is currently unknown,” Fairey said. “Its presence is expected, quite honestly, in all chlorinated drinking waters to some extent because of the chemistry, and it has similarity to other toxic molecules. Therefore, future research on chloronitramide anion is needed to understand its potential implications in drinking water.”
Experts emphasize the need for further investigation into the long-term effects of consuming this chemical and its role in the formation of other potentially harmful compounds
The scientific community is now tasked with determining whether this newly defined chemical poses a risk to millions of consumers nationwide.
The paper is published in Science.
