BC Environmental and Occupational Health Research Network

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are likely to become progressively more important in the future due to increasing water reuse; taste and odor issues; wastewater-derived organics; emerging contaminants such as endocrine disrupting compounds, pharmaceutically active compounds, and personal care products; and potential future regulations. Advanced oxidation has an advantage over other processes such as membranes and activated carbon for treating emerging contaminants in that it is a transformation process that can actually destroy the contaminant and remove it from the environment. However, there is some risk that this transformative attribute can also have negative consequences. It is, therefore, important to study the potential risk for AOPs to transform target contaminants into undesirable products that may have potential health effects or form additional unwanted byproducts through interaction with other water constituents. This project will evaluate the risk that AOPs transform selected organic contaminants from EPA’s Contaminant Candidate List 3 (CCL3) into byproducts with potential health effects.