A class of drinking water disinfectant-byproducts is reported to possibly reduce the availability of nutrients or oxygen in neurons.
“I’m not implying that drinking disinfected water will give you Alzheimer’s,” said Michael Plewa, lead scientist and professor of genetics in the U of I Department of Crop Sciences.
But yes he is as his media release was titled, “Research links water disinfection byproducts to adverse health effects“. Plewa also crowed, ” This discovery is a fundamental contribution to the field of drinking water science.”
The study, however, did not examine health effects. It was just a lab exercise in enzyme kinetics run by researchers with hyperactive imaginations.
And it should certainly not serve as a basis for using more expensive and less effective drinking water disinfectants.
Bravo! Time to get out a really really big lens and build a zero carbon footprint water boiler to rid ourselves of the pesky organisms and nasty chemical byproducts in our water being encouraged by the process of civilization.
Boiling water would also be a good way to remove any haloacetic acid compounds.
Any disinfecting agent is better than contracting water-borne diseases that can make one incredibly ill or very dead. Given those circumstances that exist in places around the world, does it matter? I hear that boiling the water works as well. Is this a real issue, or just another pile of EPA shavings on the floor?
Of course iodine disinfection isn’t regulated by the EPA. No one uses it! At least, no one that I know of.
The abstract never mentions chloroacetic acid. It only mentions that iodoacetic acid may affect cells. I dare say that 99% or more of potable water treatment uses chlorine and no large plant uses iodine.
Ask me if I am surprised.
I seem to remember putting a blank over chlorine in my periodic table because Ms. Brower’s EPA said it was bad to use in water. This seems like more of the same.