Occurrence and health risk assessment of halogenated disinfection byproducts in indoor swimming pool water

Swimming pool disinfection byproducts (DBPs) have become a concern in many countries all over the world. In this study, the concentrations of several categories of DBPs, including trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids (HAAs), haloacetonitriles (HANs), haloketones (HKs) and trichloronitromethane (TCNM), in 13 public indoor swimming pools in Nanjing, China were determined, the correlations between DBPs and water quality parameters as well as between different DBP categories were evaluated, and the health risks of the DBPs to human were examined. The results indicate that the DBP levels in the swimming pools in Nanjing were relatively high, with HAAs as the most dominant category, followed by THMs, HANs, HICs and TCNM sequentially. Bromochloroacetic acid (BCAA), trichloromethane (TCM), dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN), and 1,1,1-trichloropropanone (1,1,1-TCP) were the most dominant species among HAAs, THMs, HANs, and HKs, respectively. For all the different categories of DBPs, the concentrations in the pool disinfected with ozonation/chlorination were lower than those in the pool disinfected with chlorination. The DP levels were generally not affected by the number of swimmers and the DBP levels on different dates were relatively stable. Besides, the chlorine residual seemed to be a critical concern in most of the swimming pools in this study. Moreover, there were some correlations between DBPs and water quality parameters as well as between different DBP categories. It is to be noted that the predicted cancer and health risks of the DBPs in these swimming pools were generally higher than the regulatory limits by USEPA, and thus DBPs in these swimming pools should be concerned. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.