Concentration levels of disinfection by-products in 14 swimming pools of China

doi:10.1007/s11783-015-0797-7

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2015, Vol. 9

Issue (6) : 995-1003 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-015-0797-7

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Concentration levels of disinfection by-products in 14 swimming pools of China

Xiaolu ZHANG¹, Hongwei YANG¹, Xiaofeng WANG¹, Yu ZHAO¹, Xiaomao WANG¹(

), Yuefeng XIE^1,²

¹. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
². Civil and Environmental Engineering Programs, The Pennsylvania State University, Middletown, PA 17057, USA

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Abstract

Swimming has become a popular exercising and recreational activity in China but little is known about the disinfection by-products (DBPs) concentration levels in the pools. This study was conducted as a survey of the DBPs in China swimming pools, and to establish the correlations between the DBP concentrations and the pool water quality parameters. A total of 14 public indoor and outdoor pools in Beijing were included in the survey. Results showed that the median concentrations for total trihalomethanes (TTHM), nine haloacetic acids (HAA9), chloral hydrate (CH), four haloacetonitriles (HAN4), 1,1-dichloropropanone, 1,1,1-trichloropropanone and trichloronitromethane were 33.8, 109.1, 30.1, 3.2, 0.3, 0.6 µg∙L⁻¹ and below detection limit, respectively. The TTHM and HAA9 levels were in the same magnitude of that in many regions of the world. The levels of CH and nitrogenous DBPs were greatly higher than and were comparable to that in typical drinking water, respectively. Disinfection by chlorine dioxide or trichloroisocyanuric acid could substantially lower the DBP levels. The outdoor pools had higher TTHM and HAA9 levels, but lower trihaloacetic acids (THAA) levels than the indoor pools. The TTHM and HAA9 concentrations could be moderately correlated with the free chlorine and total chlorine residuals but not with the total organic carbon (TOC) contents. When the DBP concentration levels from other survey studies were also included for statistical analysis, a good correlation could be established between the TTHM levels and the TOC concentration. The influence of chlorine residual on DBP levels could also be significant.

Keywords disinfection by-products (DBPs) swimming pool correlation total organic carbon (TOC) chlorine residual bather load

Corresponding Author(s): Xiaomao WANG

Online First Date: 16 June 2015 Issue Date: 23 November 2015

Cite this article:

Xiaolu ZHANG,Hongwei YANG,Xiaofeng WANG, et al. Concentration levels of disinfection by-products in 14 swimming pools of China[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2015, 9(6): 995-1003.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-015-0797-7
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2015/V9/I6/995

category	pool number	disinfectant	total chlorine /(mg?L⁻¹)	free chlorine /(mg?L⁻¹)	TOC /(mg?L⁻¹)	UV254/(cm⁻¹)	pH	$N O 3 −$ /(mg?L⁻¹)	TON /(mg?L⁻¹)
outdoor	1	NaClO	1.06 (0.39) ^a	0.88 (0.28)	9.15 (0.64)	0.03 (0.00)	8.10 (0.10)	54.69 (9.17)	0.66 (0.26)
	2	NaClO	3.93 (0.32)	3.50 (0.20)	12.57 (2.30)	0.03 (0.01)	7.93 (0.06)	88.35 (5.36)	1.34 (1.24)
	3	NaClO	3.06 (2.98)	2.44 (2.40)	12.98 (1.03)	0.02 (0.01)	7.77 (0.12)	18.99 (2.57)	0.93 (1.03)
	4	NaClO	0.29 (0.13)	0.13 (0.07)	3.18 (1.76)	0.01 (0.00)	8.33 (0.12)	13.46 (1.82)	1.23 (1.05)
	5	NaClO	0.27 (0.09)	0.17 (0.14)	N/A	0.01 (0.00)	8.33 (0.25)	12.93 (0.75)	0.20 (0.22)
indoor	6	O₃+NaClO	1.09 (0.58)	0.86 (0.56)	2.70 (0.32)	0.02 (0.00)	7.70 (0.20)	13.55 (1.28)	0.57 (0.68)
	7	ClO₂^a	0.55 (0.13)	0.34 (0.11)	2.50 (0.57)	0.03 (0.01)	6.98 (0.13)	23.12 (2.13)	0.66 (0.07)
	8	NaClO	2.00 (0.80)	1.73 (0.70)	12.78 (5.63)	0.03 (0.00)	8.47 (0.06)	24.89 (33.04)	0.38 (0.48)
	9	O₃+NaClO	1.13 (0.28)	0.89 (0.29)	3.32 (2.47)	0.03 (0.00)	8.05 (0.07)	35.34 (42.25)	0.19 (0.18)
	10	O₃+NaClO	0.98 (0.44)	0.20 (0.10)	4.70 (0.65)	0.07 (0.01)	8.23 (0.06)	25.51 (1.82)	0.96 (0.21)
	11	NaClO	0.64 (0.36)	0.09 (0.07)	27.22 (3.41)	0.62 (0.03)	7.20 (0.14)	207.61 (6.55)	11.14 (2.07)
	12	trichloroisocyanuric acid	0.17 (0.21)	0.07 (0.06)	5.03 (0.99)	0.03 (0.00)	7.40 (0.00)	65.76 (48.89)	0.82 (0.54)
	13	NaClO	0.80 (0.30)	0.36 (0.24)	6.09 (0.76)	0.06 (0.01)	8.27 (0.06)	23.29 (4.78)	1.54 (0.22)
	14	NaClO	0.75 (0.32)	0.34 (0.21)	16.18 (1.70)	0.07 (0.01)	7.60 (0.10)	48.49 (7.04)	3.42 (0.90)
median (μ)	0.77	0.37	6.11	?	?
σ value ^b	0.851	1.360	0.887	?	?

Tab.1 Disinfection method and water quality parameters of the swimming pools

Tab.2 Disinfection by-product concentrations of the swimming pool waters

Fig.1 Comparison of the DBP levels in the surveyed outdoor and indoor pools

Tab.3 Pearson correlation of the DBP concentrations in pairs and with TOC and disinfectant residuals

Fig.2 Comparison of the median, geometric mean or arithmetic mean concentrations for TTHM, HAA9 and TOC concentrations in the different studies

Fig.3 Comparison of the median, geometric mean or arithmetic mean concentrations for TTHM, HAA9 and free chlorine residual in the different studies

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