Occurrence and ecological risk of disinfection byproducts in urban water body during the pandemic in the Pearl River Delta

Huazhi Wu; Lin Zhang; Pengran Guo; Yanping Zhao; Yumei Song; Xuerong Zhang; Yongqian Lei; Jingwei Xu

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136550

Occurrence and ecological risk of disinfection byproducts in urban water body during the pandemic in the Pearl River Delta

J Hazard Mater. 2024 Nov 19:482:136550. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136550. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Huazhi Wu¹, Lin Zhang², Pengran Guo³, Yanping Zhao⁴, Yumei Song⁴, Xuerong Zhang⁵, Yongqian Lei⁴, Jingwei Xu⁶

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Measurement and Emergency Test Technology, Institute of Analysis, Guangdong Academy of Sciences (China National Analytical Center, Guangzhou), Guangzhou 510070, China; School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Measurement and Emergency Test Technology, Institute of Analysis, Guangdong Academy of Sciences (China National Analytical Center, Guangzhou), Guangzhou 510070, China; School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang University of Technology, Shenyang 110870, China.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Measurement and Emergency Test Technology, Institute of Analysis, Guangdong Academy of Sciences (China National Analytical Center, Guangzhou), Guangzhou 510070, China. Electronic address: prguo@fenxi.com.cn.
⁴ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Measurement and Emergency Test Technology, Institute of Analysis, Guangdong Academy of Sciences (China National Analytical Center, Guangzhou), Guangzhou 510070, China.
⁵ Guangdong Ecological Environment Monitoring Center, Guangzhou 510630, China. Electronic address: 18922226968@189.cn.
⁶ Guangdong MS Institute of Scientific Instrument Innovation, Guangzhou 510530, China.

PMID: 39579696
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136550

Abstract

As the economic center of southern China, the Pearl River Delta region (PRDR) pays special attention to public health issues. During the pandemic, intensive disinfection was carried out in the city to prevent the spread of the virus, which resulted in disinfectant residuals elevating and produced large amounts of toxic disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in the urban water environment. For the purpose of surveying the concentration and distribution of urban water DBPs during the outbreak, 57 samples were collected from three urban water matrices in the PRDR, and were analyzed for the common seven types of DBPs, to elucidate their occurrence and ecological risk. Total 31 DBPs were detected, and the average concentrations of various DBPs in the three matrices were in the order of: surface water (1.9-27.5 μg/L) < effluent from wastewater treatment plant (30.5-114.8 μg/L) < hospital wastewater (5.5-168.9 μg/L). Both trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) were the two most major DBPs in all three water categories. By comparing the concentration levels of DBPs in different areas, the concentration levels of DBPs in PRDR were not high. In some hospital wastewater, the TOC content may be able to be used as an associative indicator of DBPs content. The results of the risk quotient indicate that HAAs and haloacetonitriles (HANs) pose some ecological risk.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Disinfection byproducts; Ecological risk assessment; Pearl River Delta region.