Addition of lemon before boiling chlorinated tap water: A strategy to control halogenated disinfection byproducts

Chlorine disinfection is required to inactivate pathogens in drinking water, but it inevitably generates potentially toxic halogenated disinfection byproducts (halo-DBPs). A previous study has reported that the addition of ascorbate to tap water before boiling could significantly decrease the concentration of overall halo-DBPs in the boiled water. Since the fruit lemon is rich in vitamin C (i.e., ascorbic acid), adding it to tap water followed by heating and boiling in an effort to decrease levels of halo-DBPs was investigated in this study. We examined three approaches that produce lemon water: (i) adding lemon to tap water at room temperature, termed Lemon; (ii) adding lemon to boiled tap water (at 100 degrees C) and then cooling to room temperature, termed Boiling + Lemon; and (iii) adding lemon to tap water then boiling and cooling to room temperature, termed Lemon + Boiling. The concentrations of total and individual halo-DBPs in the resultant water samples were quantified with high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and the cytotoxicity of DBP mixtures extracted from the water samples was evaluated using human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma Caco-2 cells and hepatoma HepG2 cells. Our results show that the Lemon + Boiling approach substantially decreased the concentrations of halo-DBPs and the cytotoxicity of tap water. This strategy could be applied to control halo-DBPs, as well as to lower the adverse health effects of halo-DBPs on humans through tap water ingestion. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study investigated the use of lemon ascorbic acid to decrease Halo-DBPs in tap water by boiling after adding lemon. Results show that this method significantly reduced the concentration of harmful compounds and cytotoxicity in the water, offering a potential strategy to improve water safety.