Occurrence of Chlorite, Chlorate and Bromate in Disinfected Swimming Pool Water

Swimming pool water treatment in general includes flocculation, sand filtration and subsequent disinfection. Chlorite, chlorate and bromate are disinfection by-products of swimming pool water treated by chlorine species or ozone. They are responsible for adverse effects on human health and their analyses in swimming pool water are necessary. The simply and fast suppressed ion chromatography simultaneous separation and conductivity determination of chlorite, chlorate, bromate, fluoride, chloride, nitrate, bromide, phosphate and sulfate in disinfected swimming pool water has been described. The separation was performed on an anion-exchange column with 1.0 mm na2CO3 + 3.2 mm naHco3 as eluent, and determination by suppressed conductivity detection. chlorite has been found in 5 analyzed samples, chlorate in all of them, and bromate in the 2 samples originated from ozonated swimming pool water. ions were analyzed in the wide concentrations range from 0.05 mg l-1 (bromate) up to 300 mg l-1 (chloride, sulfate). linearity of disinfection by-products was checked up to 2.0 mg/l (chlorite), 30 mg l-1 (chlorate) and 0.5 mg l-1 (bromate) with a 50 μl injection loop (r2= 0.9966 – 0.9985), respectively. Fluoride, chloride, nitrate, bromide, phosphate, and sulfate did not interfere with target anions. The detection limits of ClO2 -, ClO3 and brO3 were on the levels: 0.19 mg l-1, 0.69 mg l-1 and 0.006 mg l-1, respectively. The mean recoveries of target anions for spiked samples were 85% – 110% and coefficient of variation of analyzed anions do not exceed 4.72%. The concentrations of inorganic disinfection by-products differ from 0.31 mg l-1 up to 31.92 mg l-1.