ABSTRACT
Haloacetic acids are an important class of disinfection by-products that have been linked to bladder, kidney, and rectal cancers in human. These substances are produced along with a variety of other halogenated organic compounds during chlorination of natural waters. Haloacetic acids in aqueous samples can be measured by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Methods 551.1, 552.1, and 552.2 and by the APHA/AWWA/WEF Method 6251B. These methods do not differ much from each other in their analytical procedures. These methods are based on partitioning haloacetic acids from acidified waters into a suitable immiscible organic solvent, followed by derivatizing these compounds into their methyl esters and then separating the ester derivatives on a capillary gas chromatography (GC) column and detecting the acids using an electron capture detector (ECD). Several methods have been reported in the literature for measuring haloacetic acids in water. Most of these methods are modifications of the US EPA methods.
