Disinfection by-products formed during drinking water treatment: reducing the unknowns is managing risk

饮用水消毒是减少水传播疾病和保护健康的一项成功措施。然而，流行病学证据表明，膀胱癌与饮用水处理过程中形成的消毒副产物有关。尽管经过几十年的研究，致病因子仍有待确定。为了填补这一知识空白，本项目将利用化学分析和体外生物测定相结合的方法，量化用不同消毒剂处理的水样中无法用已知化学物质解释的毒性部分。然后将具有高度无法解释效果的样品进行分馏，以分离毒理学相关的消毒副产物，最终将通过非目标化学分析进行鉴定。

Disinfection of drinking water is a successful measure to reduce water-borne diseases and protect health. However, epidemiological evidence links bladder cancer to disinfection by-products formed during drinking water treatment. Despite decades of research the causative agents remain to be identified. To fill this knowledge gap, this project will quantify the fraction of toxicity that cannot be explained by known chemicals in water samples treated with different disinfectants using a combination of chemical analysis and in-vitro bioassays. Samples with high unexplained effects will then be fractionated to isolate toxicologically relevant disinfection by-products, which will ultimately be identified with non-target chemical analysis.