On the cover this month we have two hot articles on water-related issues. The first is from Yuefeng F. Xie and colleagues at Penn State, who have studied the levels of disinfection by-product (DBP) precursors and their removal efficiencies from wastewater for the first time. Although there are regulations governing disinfectants and disinfection by-products in wastewater, precursor removal is not regulated. DBP precursors can react during the chlorination step of water disinfection to form potential harmful by-products.
Disinfection by-product formation potentials in wastewater effluents and their reductions in a wastewater treatment plant
Hao L. Tang, Yen-Chih Chen, John M. Regan and Yuefeng F. Xie
DOI: 10.1039/C2EM00015F
The other article on our cover is from Kevin C. Jones and colleagues who have applied the principle of diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) to sample organic species, modelled with the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole. DGT sampling has previously only been applied to inorganic species and this new application designated ‘o-DGT’ may be useful for the passive sampling of pharmaceuticals in both fresh and seawater the future.
A novel passive water sampler for in situ sampling of antibiotics
Chang-Er Chen, Hao Zhang and Kevin C. Jones
DOI: 10.1039/C2EM30091E
The issue also contains our monthly round-up of environmental news, which this month includes fracking legislation, bisphenol-A and the recent consult on nanosilver.
