Safe, clean, pure, clear? All words that should describe the culinary water that comes out of every faucet in the U.S. But that’s not always the case because of disinfection byproducts, even though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates the safety of the water and disinfectants used to purify it.
Disinfection Byproducts
Unintended consequences in the purification process cause disinfection byproducts. These byproducts, in higher concentrations, may cause cancer and pregnancy complications.
Water treatment plant managers can significantly reduce or eliminate these dangerous byproducts with one simple step—hiring the experts at Innova to create a custom water treatment solution.
The process
Making safe drinking water available to the masses was one of the great achievements of the 20th Century. Culinary water connections meant you no longer had to be concerned about contracting dysentery, E. coli, typhoid fever, cholera, hepatitis or any other water-borne illness through your drinking water.
The purification process creates new problems, though. When the disinfectants used to treat the water combine with carbon compounds, they produce harmful byproducts.
The typical chemicals used as water disinfectants combine with carbon compounds and create new problems in drinking water.
The consequences
Disinfection byproducts—it doesn’t have a nice ring to it, but it doesn’t sound like something that will kill you, cause pregnancy complications or stillbirth. But they can.
One of the byproducts of chlorinating water is a family of chemicals called trihalomethanes. The most well-known of this family is chloroform, a favorite product of real and fictional serial killers. California calls chloroform a known carcinogen, while the EPA only classifies it as a probable carcinogen.
Trihalomethanes may cause bladder cancer, colon and rectal cancer and problems with pregnancies. The EPA’s maximum allowed standard for these chemicals in drinking water is 80 parts per billion. However, researchers in Taiwan concluded in a 2007 study that people face twice the odds of dying from bladder cancer if they consume water with more than 21 parts per billion of trihalomethanes.
Other studies have concluded that exposure to trihalomethanes causes low birth weight, stillbirth and other health problems in babies.
Some water treatment plants have gotten the message and switched to something they thought was safer—chloramines instead of chlorine. The harmful byproducts associated with chlorine treatment drop significantly, but chloramines cause new problems. They’re toxic to kidney dialysis patients and toxic to fish.
The solution
Water treatment doesn’t have to create cancer-causing toxic trash. Innova’s line of specialty blended chemicals is your water treatment solution.
Our team of industry-recognized experts will evaluate your water treatment plant and determine the best course of action. Our water-treatment solution will significantly reduce your use of chlorine-related disinfectants. Doing that will lower the total organic compounds and result in significant reductions in disinfectant byproducts.
Water purification doesn’t need to create byproducts that cause cancer and pregnancy complications. With a call to Innova, we’ll make sure your water is pure and safe for your consumers.
