According to multiple sources, researchers have identified a new drinking water contaminant called the chloronitramide anion. It has not yet been determined if this compound is toxic to humans, but nonetheless the drinking water community is buzzing as if we just discovered life on other planets.
The important questions of course are simple. How does it form? How do we filter it? Is it toxic? Where do we find it? In no specific order let’s learn more about this latest monster.
- Chloramine – Chloramine is a chemical that municipalities use to control bacteria and other organisms in our drinking water. In a simple explanation chloramine is made with a combination of chlorine and ammonia. The suffix “amine” is used in chemistry any time the ammonium ion, NH3 + is involved in a process or reaction.
Many municipalities began using chloramine as a disinfectant because it doesn’t have the offensive-to-some odor of chlorine, and because it lasts a lot longer than regular chlorine. The longer “half-life” allows tap water to remain bacteria free for a longer period.
However, because chlorine, Cl2 is more potent than chloramine, municipalities that use chloramine generally combine it with regular chlorine.
Another important side note is that while Granular Activated Carbon filters are immensely effecting at removing chlorine, they will not remove chloramine. To remove chloramine from your water you will need a filter with Catalytic Activated Carbon. This is a more expensive filter, and you must specifically ask for this material.
Furthermore, other than a test kit, there is no way to easily determine if your municipality uses chloramine. A call to the treatment plant can get you that answer. Some municipalities publish their water treatment regimen on their website. There is, however, no fast and hard rule about this.
- Chloronitramide – Not that it is vitally important to the conversation but the chemical representation for this compound is ClN2O2-1. The negative 1 number indicates that this the compound has a negative charge and is therefore categorized as an anion (pronounced an-eye-on). This compound is formed when chloramine starts to break down.
- This is nothing new – Chloronitramide was first observed in the 1980s. Modern instrumentation has enabled the actual formula to be determined.
Perhaps the most important view I can provide on this compound is to point out that the culprit in this chemistry is founded in the chlorine compound. Chlorine is a class of compound called an oxidizing agent. To be brief, oxidizing agents change the chemical composition and behavior of other compounds they encounter. Hydrogen Peroxide and Ozone are also very powerful oxidizing agents.
- The double edge sword – Chlorine compounds are highly reactive, This a wonderful characteristic when we want to destroy an organism such as algae, bacteria, and plankton. However, this same reactivity causes uncontrollability which often leads to the creation of new, unexpected compounds. Chloronitramide is one of these compounds.
Unfortunately, it is highly likely that chlorine has created many decomposition compounds which instrumentation and the focus of research has not yet stumbled upon. Remember, a researcher must have a purposeful focus with funding for new chlorine-based compounds to be found. New contaminants don’t just pop out of a water glass and introduce themselves.
- So why now? – It is at this point that I will piss off the drinking water industry and get called a conspiracist. Some might consider where I am taking this conversation editorializing, but I assure you my analysis is scientifically tight.
Ask yourself a question. If this new compound is not yet proven to be toxic, what possible reason is there for publicizing its latest discovery? Why did scientists not raise this matter when Chloronitramide was first discovered forty-plus years ago? If it is a possible health risk why did nobody hold up a red flag for us?
“The study underlines that any potential toxicity is not currently known” 1
-Science.org-
The answer to this is very simple. Forty years ago, there was no money in it. The headline, “scientists discover new water chemical that can’t be shown to be toxic would have been a yawner.
Today however, with unscrupulous entities like the Water Quality Association (WQA) and the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF), coupled with many unethical water filter companies and their lobbyists, there is big money in scaring people with revelations of new contaminants and then reassuring them that their new filter will remove the danger.
Years ago, compounds called trihalomethanes (THMs), also a disinfection byproduct caused by a combination of halogens, (chlorine, bromine, iodine, and fluorine) and decomposition of organic material, (dead animals, bacteria, leaves, grasses and other debris) were discovered in municipal water supplies that used lakes, rivers and streams. Studies were done on the toxicity of these compounds. What was discovered is that some of them might cause conditions that could lead to cancer.
Understand what is being said here. The research did not say that THMs caused cancer, but instead said that the compounds could trigger other events that could then cause cancer.
Faced with a conundrum, the research and filter lobbyists came up with the phrase “precursor”. Voila, suddenly the market was offering new filters to remove THMs. Am I saying that we should not worry about THMs or Chloronitramide? Well, no, but if you read the fine print, the researchers, filter industry and even the EPA are hinting at this. In more than one expert documentation it is firmly stated that the dangers presented by THMs are far less dangerous than having water with no chlorine in it.2
The reality? Our authorities like scare people with the word “might”, get the EPA to set a new limit, and then sell the same old water filters they have been selling all along, only with new branding and claims.
- Chloronitramide. Should we be afraid? – Depending on who you consult with you will get a different answer to this question. Any time something toxic is discovered common sense tells us to do what we can to avoid it. In the case of this contaminant we don’t know if it is toxic. The good news is that because it is an electrically charged particle, an anion, modern filtration technology will filter it out. Many systems already in the consumers’ home, Granular Activated Carbon for sure will filter it out. Still, we are about to see a rush of new filters and advertisements that feature anion-attracting media to address the latest water terror.
Right now, nobody is saying this is toxic, however very soon we will see scare tactics motivating many to protect themselves from chloronitramide.
- What should we do? – One of the tenets and recurring themes of my work is that no matter what we do, collectively or individually we cannot reverse the contamination that exists in our water supplies. We have been polluting the environment for far too long to ever have clean water sources again,
Logically, if we accept this truth, then we also must accept that the only way to protect ourselves from existing and new contamination is to put a properly designed drinking water system into our home.
The natural world of chemistry will continue to create new, yet undiscovered contaminants. Chlorine is highly reactive, water is highly reactive, and many components of our water are highly reactive. It is foolish to believe that we will ever manage the world of natural chemistry and control the contaminants that pollute our water.
Point of use filtration is the solution to the contaminants that we know, and also those we don’t.
