Minimizing Drinking Water Contaminants - Natural, Anthropogenic & By-products of Treatment

我的大部分研究的最终目标是促进向所有人提供安全饮用水，特别是在尽量减少对人类健康有潜在影响的化学污染物方面。即使是微量水平，饮用水中的几种污染物也已知或怀疑对人类健康有影响。例如，亚硝胺在ng/L（万亿分之一）浓度下可以发挥致癌作用，既可以存在于原水中，也可以作为消毒的副产品形成。某些药物也可以进入我们的饮用水处理厂，通常是上游废水排放的结果（特别是在高度城市化的地区）。它们不容易被常规处理工艺去除，虽然它们的直接影响被认为是最小的，但其中一些可以在处理过程中转化为上述亚硝胺。此外，一些微量污染物，如被称为“诱变剂X”的化合物，虽然在20多年前被发现是氯化反应的副产品，但目前正在重新审查其潜在的健康影响和可治疗性。

The ULTIMATE GOAL of much of my research is to facilitate the provision of safe drinking water to all, particularly in regards to minimizing chemical contaminants that are of potential human health concern. Even at trace levels, several contaminants in drinking water have known or suspected human health effects. Nitrosamines, for example, can exert carcinogenic effects at ng/L (parts-per-trillion) concentrations and can be present either in the raw water or are formed as by-products of disinfection. Certain pharmaceuticals can also find their way into our drinking water treatment plant intakes, usually as a result of upstream wastewater discharges (especially in heavily urbanized areas). They are not readily removed by conventional treatment processes, and while their direct effects are thought to be minimal some of them can be transformed during treatment into the nitrosamines mentioned above. In addition, some trace contaminants such as the compound known as ‘mutagen X’, although discovered as a chlorination by-product more than 20 years ago, is currently being re-examined for its potential health impacts and treatability.