Disinfection Byproducts in Drinking Water from the Tap: Variability in Household Calculated Additive Toxicity (CAT)

Recent studies have implemented a calculated additive toxicity (CAT) approach that sums measured disinfection byproduct (DBP) concentrations weighted by their respective in vitro bioassay potencies to estimate their associated risk in disinfected waters. In this study, the CAT approach was used to systematically investigate 21 regulated and unregulated DBPs measured in drinking water at the household level. Water samples from the tap were collected from over 120 randomly selected participants supplied by eight public water systems using four distinct source water types, two types of disinfection processes, and across two seasons. The purpose of this study was to compare CAT using multiple biological end points, examine household variability, identify DBPs driving toxicity, and assess if current regulated DBPs are adequate predictors of unregulated DBPs. Our results support the significance of unregulated DBPs, particularly haloacetonitriles and iodoacetic acid, as drivers of toxicity. Simple linear models between regulated versus unregulated concentrations and CAT were overall weak with 67% considered poor (r² < 0.3). These results reveal that current regulatory monitoring approaches may not be adequately capturing true household exposure due to higher contribution of unregulated DBPs to CAT and poor predictability between regulated and unregulated DBP-mediated CAT.

A household-level examination of disinfection byproducts across eight public water systems reveals high variability of calculated additive toxicity and supports the importance of unregulated compounds.