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Is there something in the water?
The answer appears to be yes. For four decades, scientists have struggled to identify a mysterious “phantom” chemical found in drinking water across the US. All they knew was that it was a byproduct of the disinfectant chloramine, which is commonly used in water treatment.
Now, the mystery appears to have been solved. As detailed in a study published in the journal Science, the culprit is what the authors have identified as chloronitramide anion, a chemical previously unknown to science that is a compound of one chlorine atom, two nitrogen atoms, and two oxygen atoms.
But the implications of the discovery are unclear. While it bears similarities to other waterborne chemicals that are regulated for being toxic, scientists don’t yet know if chloronitramide anion is harmful for humans to consume, and are thus urging immediate further research into the byproduct.
“We need to investigate it. We don’t know the toxicity,” study lead author Julian Fairey, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas, told The Washington Post. “This work was 40 years in the making in terms of trying to identify the compound, and now that we have identified it, we can delve into how toxic is this thing.”
None of this is necessarily cause for alarm. Contaminants are unavoidable in drinking water, and when kept at low enough concentrations are generally harmless.
Chloramines, which are derived from combining chlorine and ammonia, have been used to effectively treat water for nearly a century in the US, and are also used in other countries including Australia.
But as with many chemical disinfectants, it creates byproducts that themselves have to be carefully managed. These form when the chloramines interact with organic substances in the water, like harmful germs, and over time, can decompose to form yet more kinds of byproducts. The newly identified chloronitramide anion is one of these decomposition off-shoots.
Still, the advantage of using chloramines was that they actually facilitate lower concentrations of byproducts that we know to be harmful — and in some cases carcinogenic — than chlorine, the most popular disinfectant for treating water.
Until more research is conducted, the verdict is out on chloronitramide anion’s safety — but many experts are optimistic.
“I agree that a toxicological investigation of this anion would be useful now that we know its identity, but I am not overly worried about my tap water,” Oliver Jones, a professor of chemistry at RMIT University in Melbourne Australia, who was not involved in the study, said in a statement.
“The question is not — is something toxic or not — because everything is toxic at the right amount, even water. The question is whether the substance is toxic at the amount we are exposed to,” he continued. “I think here the answer is probably not.”
If anything, we should probably be more worried about all those microplastics we imbibe.
More on water: Nearly Half of US Tap Water Laced With Toxic “Forever Chemicals,” Scientists Find
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