Nontoxic Medical Imaging Agents Form Toxic DBPs

Iodinated X-ray contrast media (ICM), used medically to highlight soft tissues, are considered generally safe, and patients excrete 95% of the dose within 24 hours, making them a valuable tool in medical imaging. But a new study shows that excreted ICM react with chloramine and chlorine at water treatment plants to form toxic iodinated disinfection by-products (iodo-DBPs). 1 " ICM are definitely a source of iodo-DBPs in drinking water, " says study coauthor Susan Richardson, a research chemist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Athens, Georgia, although she says natural iodide salts from saltwater intrusion are probably the major source of these contaminants. In an earlier study of drinking water collected from 23 cities, Richardson and toxicologist Michael Plewa of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign detected iodo-acids and iodo-trihalomethanes, both highly toxic iodo-DBPs. 2 They assumed that the source of iodine was natural iodide salts from intrusion of ocean water or natural minerals in the source water. Yet surprisingly, some samples had high concentrations of iodo-DBPs despite little or no detectable natural iodide in the water. Their new study, done in collaboration with Stephen Duirk at the University of Akron and Thomas Ternes at the German Federal Institute of Hydrology, suggests that ICM, which contain three iodines per molecule, were an unexpected source of iodine in 10 of the original 23 cities. Further laboratory tests confirmed that ICM form iodo-DBPs in the presence of chlorine and chloramine, which are commonly used to treat drinking water. and the compounds end up in rivers used for drinking water. 3 Richardson's team screened drinking water for five common ICM (io pamidol, iopromide, diatrizo-ate, iomeprol, and iohexol). Iopamidol was detected in the highest concentrations—up to 2,700 ng/L, compared with less than 100 ng/L for the majority of the other ICM—and was chosen as the test ICM for controlled experiments. When iopamidol was dissolved in river water spiked with chlorine or chloramine, high levels of iodoacetic acid and iodo-t r i h a lomet h a ne s were produced in a dose-dependent manner. In comparison, no iodo-DBPs formed in the absence of iopamidol in river water containing the two disinfectants. Iodo-DBPs form best at pH 6.5–8.5, conditions common at water treatment plants. 1 ICM are a major medical breakthrough— " We don't want to stop using them, " Richardson says. Other types of ICM may form lower concentrations of iodo-DBPs than …