CHAPTER 19: The Removal Effect of Volatile Halocarbon Compounds in Drinking Water Using Household Water Purifier

We examined the effectiveness of filtration using water purifying cartridges to remove volatile halocarbon compounds (VHCs) in drinking water. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of commercial filters in comparison with the effect of boiling in removing VHCs. The standard pure waters were adulterated with eight VHCs of concentration such as CHCl₃ 0.1–100 µg/L, CHCl₂Br 0.025–25 µg/L, CHClBr₂ 0.04–40 µg/L, CHBr₃ 0.2–200 µg/L, C₂HCl₃ 0.15–150 µg/L, C₂Cl₄ 0.04–40 µg/L, C₂H₃Cl₃ 0.04–40 µg/L and CCl₄ 0.01–10 µg/L. In almost all boiled samples except CHBr₃, the concentration levels of VHCs were decreased to undetectable levels. However, in the highest level of CHBr₃, the level of 200 μg/L was reduced to 1 instead of undetectable level after 10-minutes boiling. The total 200L of each adulterated sample was filtered using a commercial cartridge filter and the VHCs levels analyzed. The highest concentration of CHCl₃ was decreased to 43% of the original level. However, in the series of CHCl₂Br, CHClBr₂, CHBr₃, C₂HCl₃, C₂Cl₄, and C₂H₃Cl₃, only 0.5% of these VHCs were detected after filtering, and an undetectable amount of CCl₄ was also revealed. We also evaluated the VHCs contamination level such as CHCl₃, CHCl₂Br, CHClBr₂, CHBr₃ and CCl₄ in samples of drinkable tap water, which were measured as 6.6, 5.7, 2.5, 1.0 and 0.4 µg/L, respectively. By filtering 1,800 L of contaminated water, the removal capability of VHCs fell. The levels of CHCl₃, CHCl₂Br, CHClBr₂, CHBr₃ and CCl₄ remained at 95, 67, 60, 20 and 0% of the original amount, respectively.