Analysis, occurrence and control of chloro-s-triazine endocrine disrupting chemicals in drinking water

Chloro-s-triazine is a general term for a suite of triazine compounds including atrazine (ATZ), simazine (SIM), propazine (PROP), deethylatrazine (DEA), deisopropylatrazine (DIA), and didealkylatrazine (DDA), which have a common chloro-group on their chemical structures. Recent research has shown that ATZ and SIM, along with PROP, DEA, and DDA, may pose a common adverse health effect to human beings in terms of the endocrine disrupting mechanism. New regulations on chloro-s-triazine compounds based on their endocrine disrupting effect are currently under consideration by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.; In this work, a series of projects were launched to investigate the occurrence of these chloro-s-triazine endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC) in natural waters, how well the conventional water treatment plants treat these EDCs and how those contaminants can be controlled once they do enter water treatment plants.; This research shows that, in general, the total chloro-s-triazine EDCs present in natural waters is generally low within the two-year monitoring period, and most investigated water treatment plants are doing a good job preventing these contaminants from entering tap waters. However, this study also shows that common drinking water treatment technologies are ineffective in removing of chloro-s-triazine EDCs with the exception of activated carbon adsorption, and, to some degree, by ozonation technology. Further study also indicates that atrazine and its three chlorinated metabolites can all be removed by granular activated carbon, and there is no significant adsorption competition observed among these compounds when they are simultaneously present in natural water.