Naphthalene in Drinking Water: Sources, Risks, and Impacts
- Published:
- Updated: December 16, 2024
Summary
The presence of naphthalene in drinking water poses significant risks due to industrial and urban sources. Key points include:
- Chemical Composition: Naphthalene, found in mothballs, originates from various industrial processes and improper waste disposal.
- Health Risks: Exposure can lead to acute symptoms like nausea and severe conditions such as cancer, with vulnerable populations facing heightened risks.
- Environmental Impact: Aquatic ecosystems suffer from reduced biodiversity and ecosystem disruption due to naphthalene contamination.
The solvent, water, is universal – and it dissolves nearly anything. In the age of industrialisation and urbanisation, many chemicals end up in our drinking water. One of them is naphthalene, which may be more common to us than we think. But why care about naphthalene in our water?
The Chemical Makeup of Naphthalene
Naphthalene is an organic chemical composed of combined rings of benzene. It’s white, flammable and crystallized in its purest forms and best known as the main ingredient in mothballs. The molecule smells foul and is employed in many industrial applications for its odour, especially in the manufacture of plastics, resins and chemicals.
Naphthalene is already so ubiquitous, which is not to say that it shouldn’t be in our bodies. No one knows it carries the smell, but no one knows it can be a nit in our drinking water if not properly removed and disposed of.
Sources of Naphthalene Contamination
Companies involved in the refinement of coal tar, the preserving of wood, or the manufacture of moth odour repellents and blocks of deodorant are major sources of naphthalene. It is not uncommon for these emissions to leak into the ground, and eventually pollute groundwater, a major source of drinking water.
Nor is urban runoff, a smorgasbord of contaminants from street surfaces, always devoid of naphthalene. The runoff if not treated can go into the lake, river or reservoir. As can household products containing naphthalene that have been poorly disposed-of, and should be appropriately managed.
Understanding Safe Levels of Naphthalene
That’s because not all water that contains any amount of naphthalene, or at least that we can detect, is necessarily hazardous. All the regulators around the world have set maximum permissible levels for use in water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for instance has defined thresholds at which pollutants are acceptable to protect the public.
There are standards that are applied by different countries and these are backed up with lots of studies. These levels are precisely curated with long-term exposure and human health in mind. Please keep to these instructions if you don’t want your health to be affected by naphthalene usage.
Risks of Naphthalene Consumption
There are several health risks to drinking water high in naphthalene. But even temporary exposure, even in a short period, can be nauseating, vomiting, abdominal cramping and even fatal hemolytic anaemia. Chronic exposure, meanwhile, has more negative health consequences, such as cataracts, and is reported to cause cancer in animals.
Children, pregnant women and those who have existing diseases could be at risk. Babies who are ill from high doses of naphthalene, for example, develop hemolytic anemia (red blood cells that are destroyed much faster than they become produced). So, it’s very important that water quality be good for all community members.
Environmental Impact of Naphthalene Contamination
Yet it is not just humans who are at the worst of naphthalene pollution. These ecosystems are especially vulnerable in the oceans. Naphthalene poisons fish, invertebrates and other waterfowl, diminishing diversity when released into waterways.
More than simply toxic, naphthalene interferes with the delicate equilibrium of aquatic environments. For instance, since lower-level food-chain organisms are affected, this can have reverberatory effects on predators. Substances such as naphthalene, which is long-term, can change the very structure of aquatic ecosystems.
Methods for Detecting Naphthalene in Water
Since naphthalene is so dangerous, it’s critical to look for it in water. Technology has granted us highly developed instruments to do just that. The most used technique is gas chromatography which accurately tests for naphthalene levels in water.
And it’s not just water treatment plants at scale that test for naphthalene. There are portable testing kits for more local and frequent inspections. And when that risk of contamination is real, it’s vital that we always test our water, so that the water we drink will never go bad.
Treatment and Remediation Strategies
But naphthalene pollution is no dead end, thankfully. There are a few ways this poison can be removed from water:
Activated carbon filtration: The naphthalene molecules are removed from water by carbon’s adsorption.
Air stripping: Exposure of polluted water to the air which releases volatile chemicals such as naphthalene.
Biological treatments: There are bacteria that break down naphthalene and purify the water.
New research keeps trying to discover better, faster and cleaner ways to decontaminate. From public-level infrastructure to in-house water filters, access to clean water is a major concern around the world.
Prevention and Mitigation Measures
Prevention, like so many environmental issues, beats treatment. Companies could be more sanitary in their production, or discard less waste or sterilise effluent to reduce naphthalene’s environmental footprint. Public education campaigns, too, can help warn communities of the dangers of dumping household items with naphthalene in them.
Likewise, planners and politicians can use methods of urban runoff reduction like creating parks or permeable pavements. In doing so, and other preventative actions like these, we can protect our water supply not only from naphthalene but also from many other potential contaminants.
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