EVALUATION OF THE CONTENT OF CHLOROPHENOLS AND THEIR DERIVATIVES IN WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS

There is currently great environmental interest in chlorinated phenol derivatives on account of their high toxicity and wide industrial use. Surface water contains many inorganic and organic compounds both of natural and anthropogenic origin. The composition of the specified compounds in aquatic ecosystems is related to the influence of different natural factors or a variety of human activity. Aromatic compounds, due to their toxicity and persistency in the environment, establish serious danger not only for living organisms but also for the biocenosis. One of the most important group of ecotoxins are chlorophenols. They exhibit high toxicity including genotoxic, mutagenic and cancerogenic activity. Moreover, substitution of these compounds by chlorine atoms may increase their toxic action and prolong the period of their bioaccumulation in living organisms. Chlorination is one of the method which lets to remove pathogens, organic matter and xenobiotic from water. This process uses oxidants like chlorine or chlorine dioxide. Chlorination leads to transformation part of recycled compounds in forms which can be more toxic and dangerous than their precursors. This process leads also to formation of new chloroorganic compounds like halomethanes. chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons and a lot of other organic compounds which can be toxic. Their concentration in drinking water depends on the concentration of the precursors and dose of chlorine which is used in the water purification process. The aim of this work was to determine the occurrence of phenol, chlorophenols, chlorocatechols and chlorinated metoxyphenols both in drinking water of Warsaw and Tomaszow Mazowiecki, and surface water taking from Vistula and Pilica Rivers. The chromatographic analyses were made using a gas chromatograph connected with a mass spectrometer.