Application of effect-directed analysis to identify mutagenic nitrogenous disinfection by-products of advanced oxidation drinking water treatment

Abstract

Advanced oxidation processes are important barriers for organic micropollutants in (drinking) water treatment. It is however known that medium pressure UV/HO treatment may lead to mutagenicity in the Ames test, which is no longer present after granulated activated carbon (GAC) filtration. Many nitrogen-containing disinfection by-products (N-DBPs) result from the reaction of photolysis products of nitrate with (photolysis products of) natural organic material (NOM) during medium pressure UV treatment of water. Identification of the N-DBPs and the application of effect-directed analysis to combine chemical screening results with biological activity would provide more insight into the relation of specific N-DBPs with the observed mutagenicity and was the subject of this study. To this end, fractions of medium pressure UV-treated and untreated water extracts were prepared using preparative HPLC and tested using the Ames fluctuation test. In addition, high-resolution mass spectrometry was performed on all fractions to assess the presence of N-DBPs. Based on toxicity data and read across analysis, we could identify five N-DBPs that are potentially genotoxic and were present in relatively high concentrations in the fractions in which mutagenicity was observed. The results of this study offer opportunities to further evaluate the identity and potential health concern of N-DBPs formed during advanced oxidation UV drinking water treatment.

Controlled Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of the 2D-BiOCl/2D-g-C3N4 Heterostructure for the Degradation of Amine-Based Pharmaceuticals under Solar Light Illumination

“…6−8 However, most of the recent studies focused on the occurrence of NDMP compounds and the potential risk on the environment resulting from such compounds. 9−11 On the other hand, only few studies have been undertaken photocatalytic degradation of amine-based pharmaceuticals as an alternative way of wastewater treatment. 12,13…”

Bioassay-directed analysis-based identification of relevant pyrrolizidine alkaloids

“…Specific examples on the application of bioassay-directed identification approaches in food and feed include the identification of brominated dioxins in the feed additive choline chloride (Traag et al 2009 ), natural aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) agonists in marmalade (Van Ede et al 2008 ), and the potent sulfotransferase inhibitor nevadensin in basil (Alhusainy et al 2010 ). Bioassay-directed identification strategies to identify genotoxic chemicals have been applied for coastal sediments (Fernandez et al 1992 ), surface water (Grifoll et al 1992 ), urban airborne particulate matter (Casellas et al 1995 ), bioremediated soils (Brooks et al 1998 ), and to identify mutagenic nitrogenous disinfection by-products of advanced oxidation drinking water treatment (Vughs et al 2018 ). These studies mainly applied the Ames test for mutagenicity assessment.…”

The role of analytical chemistry in exposure science: Focus on the aquatic environment

“…Biotic processes include the activity of microbial flora in natural or engineered environmental compartments, like soils, surface water or wastewater, or human or animal metabolism. Abiotic TPs are formed in the aquatic environment by hydrolysis and photolysis, as well as in water-treatment processes such as oxidation by chlorination, chloramination, ozonation and other advanced oxidation processes used for disinfection and removal of chemicals (Bletsou et al, 2015;Fenner et al, 2013;Vughs et al, 2018).…”

“…Once the laboratory experiments are completed and the main TPs identified, the next step is analysing real-world environmental samples to test their possible presence in the samples (Bijlsma et al, 2013;Boix et al, 2016aBoix et al, , 2014Duester et al, 2017;Kolkman et al, 2015;Vughs et al, 2018). LC-HRMS(/MS) is the most common technique for investigation of TPs as these are generally more polar than parent compounds.…”