Tldr: chloronitramide anion, a decay product of the chloramine disinfectant routinely added to water. No one knows if it's toxic.
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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Well I'm pretty sure that drinking water treated with chloramine is far preferable to drinking untreated water, so even if it is toxic, it's not toxic enough at current levels to merit concern.
It's still worth investigating, because it's good to have confirmation.
I'm also pretty sure you're correct in saying so. I can't recall any other treatments offhand, but there may be alternatives?
Might help to filter out the chemicals before drinking.
You can't really "filter" out these chemicals when they're fully dissolved in the water.
There's always distillation, but that's not practical at all on the scale of drinking water for cities.
Reverse osmosis is the other option, but it's also not cost-effective at city scale.
Ah, good point. Forgot about that one haha.
I had thought activated charcoal could remove the chemicals. No I don't mean city scale. I meant after the water comes out of the tap but before you drink it. City water has to be treated to not harbor too many germs.
It's toxic to microbes.
Not that it's really an issue since water used in drug formulations are not treated with chloramine disinfectants. But usage of those disinfectants can contribute to nitrosamines in some drugs, which no one wants.
Incredibly unlikely (impossible?) taking a drug with chloramine disinfected water, don't worry.
There are way more nitrosamines in a thin slice of cured meat than any drug had before the regulations were put in place.
Interesting, I've never really thought about that, makes sense though. Also looks like decent amounts potentially (~0-84 ug/kg).
Surprising when they're usually only allowed in the single digit ppm range in pharmaceuticals, and many have been recalled due to nitrosamines.