Swimming pool water disinfection by-products profiles and association patterns
Eunate Abilleira,
Fernando Goñi-Irigoyen,
Juan J. Aurrekoetxea,
María A. Cortés,
Mikel Ayerdi,
Jesús Ibarluzea
Affiliations
Eunate Abilleira
Ministry of Health of the Basque Government, Public Health Laboratory in Gipuzkoa, Av. Navarra, 4, 20013 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain; Epidemiology of Chronic and Comunnicable Diseases Area, Biodonostia Health Research Institute, P° Dr. Beguiristain s/n, 20014, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain; Corresponding author. Ministry of Health of the Basque Government, Public Health Laboratory in Gipuzkoa, Av. Navarra, 4, 20013, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
Fernando Goñi-Irigoyen
Ministry of Health of the Basque Government, Public Health Laboratory in Gipuzkoa, Av. Navarra, 4, 20013 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain; Epidemiology of Chronic and Comunnicable Diseases Area, Biodonostia Health Research Institute, P° Dr. Beguiristain s/n, 20014, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain; Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Av. Monforte de Lemos, 3-5, 28029, Madrid, Spain
Juan J. Aurrekoetxea
Environmental Epidemiology and Child Development, Biodonostia Health Research Institute, P° Dr. Beguiristain s/n, 20014, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
María A. Cortés
Ministry of Health of Basque Government, Public Health Subdirectorate of Gipuzkoa, Av. Navarra, 4, 20013, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
Mikel Ayerdi
Environmental Epidemiology and Child Development, Biodonostia Health Research Institute, P° Dr. Beguiristain s/n, 20014, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain; Ministry of Health of Basque Government, Public Health Subdirectorate of Gipuzkoa, Av. Navarra, 4, 20013, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
Jesús Ibarluzea
Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Av. Monforte de Lemos, 3-5, 28029, Madrid, Spain; Environmental Epidemiology and Child Development, Biodonostia Health Research Institute, P° Dr. Beguiristain s/n, 20014, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain; Ministry of Health of Basque Government, Public Health Subdirectorate of Gipuzkoa, Av. Navarra, 4, 20013, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain; Facultad de Psicología de la UPV-EHU, Campus Gipuzkoa, Av. Tolosa, 70, 20018, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
The aim of this work was to determine and study the concentration of different groups of disinfection by-products (DBPs): trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, haloacetonitriles, haloacetones and combined chlorine (as an indicator of chloramine levels), in the water of 175 public swimming pools in Gipuzkoa (Basque Country, Spain). The study included chlorinated and brominated pools, indoor and outdoor, used for recreational and sports purposes, and filled with water from calcareous and siliceous soils. The most abundant were haloacetic acids, followed by trihalomethanes, with chlorinated or brominated forms predominating depending on whether the pools were disinfected by chlorination or bromination, respectively. All the 75th percentiles of DBPs were below the limits established by the European Chemical Agency (ECHA), although the maximum values of trihalomethanes exceeded them. The same was true for dichloroacetonitrile in chlorinated pools and dibromoacetonitrile in brominated pools. All families of DBPs showed positive associations with each other, all being significant except for combined chlorine. Their mean levels were higher in outdoor pools than in indoor pools, significantly so in all except combined chlorine. Recreational pools showed higher levels of haloacetic acids and combined chlorine than sports pools. The concentrations of the different groups of DBPs were higher in the pools than in the mains water that fed them. This increase, especially that of the haloacetonitriles, as well as the high concentrations of brominated forms in the pools disinfected by bromination, make it necessary to focus on their toxicological implication. The differences in the DBP profiles of the filling network water were not transferred to the pool water.
