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Organophosphate tri- and diesters in source water supply and drinking water treatment systems of a metropolitan city in China

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Abstract

The water contaminations with organophosphate triesters (tri-OPEs) and diesters (di-OPEs) have recently provoked concern. However, the distributions of these compounds in natural water sources and artificial water treatment facilities are poorly characterized. A comprehensive study was therefore performed to measure their concentrations in a water source, a long-distance water pipeline, and a drinking water treatment plant (DWTP). Eight tri-OPEs and 3 di-OPEs were found to be widely distributed, with total concentrations in source water and pipelines ranging from 290.6 to 843.9 ng/L. The most abundant pollutants were tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCPP), triethyl phosphate, tri-n-butyl phosphate (TnBP), and diphenyl phosphate (DPhP). Di-OPEs appeared to be removed less efficiently in the DWTP than the parent tri-OPEs, and the elimination efficiencies of tri-OPEs were structure-dependent. Long-distance pipeline transportation had no significant effect on the distributions of tri- and di-OPEs. Statistical analysis suggested that the sources of di-OPEs and the corresponding tri-OPEs differed, as did those of DPhP and di-n-butyl phosphate. A risk analysis indicated that tri-OPEs present limited ecological risks that are mainly due to TnBP and TCPP, and that the human health risks of tri-OPEs are negligible. However, di-OPEs (especially DPhP) may increase these risks. Further studies on the risks posed by di-OPEs in aquatic environments are therefore needed.

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Acknowledgements

The presented study was partially supported by National Science Foundation Project of China (51678351) and by Project “Health effect of municipal tap water based on direct drinking target (19DZ1204404)”.

Funding

Fund was provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China 51678351 and 19DZ1204404

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Xiaolan Zhang, Yuhao Bi, Minghui Fu, Bingli Lei, Xin Huang & Zhenzhen Zhao

  2. School of Public Health, Hongqiao International Institute of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, China

    Xinyu Zhang

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  1. Xiaolan Zhang
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  2. Yuhao Bi
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  3. Minghui Fu
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  4. Xinyu Zhang
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Contributions

XZ contributed to methodology, funding acquisition, supervision, and writing and review. YB contributed to methodology, visualization, and writing—original draft. MF performed investigation and data curation. XZ contributed to resources, validation, and data curation. BL contributed to methodology and validation. XH contributed to funding acquisition and resources. ZZ performed conceptualization, writing—review and editing, and supervision.

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Correspondence to Zhenzhen Zhao.

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Zhang, X., Bi, Y., Fu, M. et al. Organophosphate tri- and diesters in source water supply and drinking water treatment systems of a metropolitan city in China. Environ Geochem Health 45, 2401–2414 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01333-6

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