Jul 11, 2020
Professor Susan Richardson
specializes in water treatment and
drinking water standards.
In this podcast, she explores
Water treatment is important in
ridding our supply of pathogens and water borne diseases. However,
these disinfection by-products combine with organic materials and
minerals in the environment when they are released to form
DBPs.
Susan Richardson explains how she first learned about this issue
and where we are today in facing it. She has been the Arthur Sease
Williams Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Standards at the
University of South Carolina for the last six years, and previously
was a research chemist at the U.S. EPA National Exposure Research
Laboratory for 25 years.
She tells listeners that when
DBPs were linked to bladder and other cancers in humans, scientists
sought her expertise in
drinking water standards and these by-products in particular.
She provides more details about which DBPs are the most toxic and
explains that unfortunately the ones the U.S. doesn't regulate are
much more toxic than ones it does. Richardson addresses some of the
complications such as environmental variability across regions
affecting iodine and bromates, for example.
She describes ways to address DBPs that will still prevent water
borne diseases and uphold drinking water standards. For example,
she describes utilizing granular activated carbon as a sort of
water filter right after chloramine is introduced to remove the
precursors.
To find out more, google EPS
regulations. To learn about your local DBP levels, google water
quality reports and the name of your city.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK