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Long term consumption or cancer? Do we need to worry about bromate in drinking water?
Time：
2024-07-17
The issue of bromate in bottled mineral water has sparked heated discussions. Bromate mainly comes from ozone disinfection and is a potential carcinogen at level 2B. Long term consumption of water with excessive bromate may cause certain harm to the human body. In order to control the content of bromate, countries around the world have imposed strict restrictions on the content of bromate in drinking water.
Recently, the issue of bromate in bottled mineral water has sparked heated discussions. In fact, there have been many news reports about "excessive bromate in mineral water" in the past. So what is bromate? How is bromate produced? What are the hazards to our human body? Today, let me explain to you.
Natural water sources may contain bromine elements
Drinking water is an important pathway for our human body to obtain inorganic minerals from nature. The minerals and trace elements contained in drinking natural mineral water exist in an ionic state, which is most easily absorbed by the human body and is the best source of essential elements for the human body.
Natural water sources may contain beneficial bromine elements for the human body. The physiological functions of bromine on the human body are not yet fully understood. Currently, it is generally believed that bromine has inhibitory and regulatory effects on advanced neural activity in the central nervous system and cerebral cortex.
Disinfection by-products in drinking water: bromate
Under normal circumstances, there is no presence of bromate in water. But there are corresponding regulations on the total number of bacterial colonies in mineral water in national food standards. In order to control the total number of bacterial colonies in drinking water, most mineral water production enterprises use the fast acting, effective, and low consumption sterilization process - ozone disinfection.
While using ozone disinfection to kill bacteria, it also brings certain safety hazards. Because various natural water sources, especially mountain spring water and mineral water, contain a certain amount of beneficial bromide ions for the human body, when ozone disinfection is used, the bromide ions in the water will be oxidized into disinfection by-products such as bromate.
The higher the concentration of bromide ions in the source water, the higher the concentration of bromate generated after ozone sterilization at the same concentration; Bromate can be obtained by ozone oxidation of bromide ions: the net reaction is: Br+O3 → BrO3; Once bromate is generated, it is difficult to control and remove, which may lead to excessive bromate content in drinking water.
Bromates are easily decomposed when heated, and the common bromate ion is BrO3-. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) believes that bromate has carcinogenic effects on experimental animals, and studies have shown that bromate has genetic toxicity at high doses. Therefore, bromate is classified as a potential carcinogen at level 2B internationally, and long-term consumption of water with excessive bromate may cause certain harm to the human body.
Bromate salt restrictions in various countries around the world
In order to ensure the safety of public drinking water, countries around the world have imposed strict limits on the content of bromate in drinking water.
World Health Organization (WHO): The limit for bromate in drinking water is 10 micrograms per liter.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a limit of 10 micrograms per liter for bromate in drinking water.
EU: The limit for bromate in drinking water is 10 micrograms per liter. The bromate standard for mineral water should be below 3 micrograms per liter.
China: The drinking water hygiene standards also stipulate a limit of 10 micrograms per liter for bromate.
It should be noted that although bromate has potential hazards to human health, the World Health Organization evaluates the limit of bromate. Assuming that adults drink about two liters of water per day at a standard of 10 micrograms per liter of drinking water, the risk of cancer increases by about one in 100000 over their lifetime.
Therefore, the risk of bromate in drinking water with a bromate content not exceeding 10 micrograms per liter can be basically ignored.
Detection of bromate in water
The detection of bromate in water is a routine item for daily supervision and sampling. At present, the detection methods for bromate in water mainly include ion chromatography, spectrophotometry, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), capillary electrophoresis, ultraviolet spectrophotometry, post column derivatization, etc.
Jiayu Testing can provide various water quality testing services such as bottled water, mineral water, drinking water, tap water, etc. Welcome to contact us!
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