Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of Drinking Water Disinfection Byproducts

Abstract

Published as part of Environmental Science & Technology special issue “Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of Drinking Water Disinfection Byproducts”. The year 2024 marked the 50th anniversary of the discovery of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) during drinking water disinfection procedures. The disinfection of drinking water is important for controlling waterborne disease and was used for several decades before DBPs were first discovered in 1974. Initially, chloroform and other trihalomethanes (THMs) were both discovered independently by Rook in The Netherlands (1) and Beller et al. (2) in the United States. Two years later, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a national survey showing that chloroform and other THMs were ubiquitous in chlorinated drinking water, (3) and the National Cancer Institute reported that chloroform was carcinogenic in laboratory animals. (4) As a result, an important public health issue was realized, and in 1979, the U.S. EPA issued the first DBP regulation on four THMs in drinking water. Now, most developed countries regulate DBPs, and the World Health Organization has guidelines on maximum allowable exposure levels. However, the reality is that only a tiny fraction of the >700 DBPs now reported (and thousands predicted) are controlled, and many unregulated DBPs are much more toxic than those that are regulated. Moreover, it is still not clear which DBPs are responsible for the bladder cancer, miscarriage, and birth defects reported in human epidemiological studies. Thus, it is clear that there is much work still to do. Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T) and Environmental Science & Technology Letters (ES&T Letters) have served a multidisciplinary and diverse audience of chemists, engineers, policymakers, and the broader environmental community over the past decade. Aiming to be both transformational and direction-setting, the two high-impact journals cover a wide range of areas crucial to preserving and restoring human health and the environment. Both journals have joined together to mark this important milestone in disinfection byproduct research, collaborating on an open call for papers for a new special issue entitled “Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of Drinking Water Disinfection Byproducts”. This call for papers invites the latest cutting-edge research and developments shaping this interdisciplinary field. For background context on the most recent advances in this multidisciplinary field over the past five years, the special issue guest editor team has also curated a retrospective collection of ES&T and ES&T Letters papers published between 2020 and 2024 across both journals on this topic. The papers selected showcase the broad and multidisciplinary nature of this field of research, including papers on sources and mechanisms of DBP formation and the relative toxicity of different classes of DBPs (aromatic halogenated DBPs, halophenylacetamides, halonitromethanes, haloacetonitriles, and N-nitrosamines) toward cytotoxicity and developmental toxicity. We hope this retrospective collection serves as both a good reference collection of what has recently been accomplished in the field and inspiration for the forthcoming special issue. The new call for papers for the special issue is inviting similarly impactful broad and interdisciplinary new studies on DBPs involving chemistry, toxicology, engineering, epidemiology, and risk assessment. These may include studies on DBPs from water reuse, innovative new treatments to minimize DBPs, and investigation of biological DBPs (e.g., reaction with DNA, RNA, and proteins). By better understanding which DBPs drive health effects and their formation mechanisms, we can identify more effective ways to reduce toxic DBPs in drinking water and better protect human health. For papers submitted to the upcoming special issue, please include one paragraph clearly articulating the novelty and cutting-edge nature of your submissions in your cover letter, with specific environmental relevance and application implications. More information about article types and formatting of submissions is available in the ES&T Author Guidelines or the ES&T Letters Author Guidelines. The deadline for submission is August 1, 2025. This article references 4 other publications. This article has not yet been cited by other publications.