Overview

Drinking water quality has been a matter of concern for several decades. Disinfection of drinking water improves its microbiological quality and prevents disease outbreaks. However, continuously increasing scientific research concerns the presence of organic and inorganic contaminants in water. Many of these compounds, named haloforms, originate from the procedure of disinfection, being formed during reactions of disinfectants with natural organic matter present in water. Haloforms may possess carcinogenic or mutagenic properties; therefore minimization of their concentrations in drinking water is a critical issue. Regulatory measures are becoming more and more stringent, as new health effects become known and optimized high-sensitivity analytical methodologies are being developed. Up-to-date research findings concerning all these aspects have been collected, critically reviewed, summarized, and are presented and discussed in the present book.