| dc.description.abstract | Chlorine is commonly used as a disinfectant in drinking water treatment plant in
Malaysia for preventing water borne diseases. However, chlorine may react with natural organic matter (NOM) to form trihalomethanes (THMs) and other chlorinated by products that may cause carcinogen to human health. The objective of this study was to measure the concentration level of different THMs species such as chloroform (TCM),bromodichloromethane (BDCM), dibromochloromethane (DBCM) and bromoform
(TBM) in household tap water in 4 districts of Perlis, Malaysia with the assess of
potential health risk for cancer and non-cancer from exposure to THMs in drinking
water through oral ingestion, dermal absorption and inhalation intake by prediction
models. TCM was the only THMs compound detected in 80 houses tap water from 4
districts. The samples were prepared undergo liquid-liquid extraction method by using
pentane and analyzed by using gas chromatograph mass spectrograph (GCMS). The
mean concentration of TCM was 29 μg/L at Kangar, 12 μg/L at Kuala Perlis, 13 μg/L at
Arau and 22 μg/L at Jejawi, respectively. The concentrations of samples from 4 districts
were under the permissible limit of 300 μg/L for TCM set by World Health
Organization (WHO) and the permissible limit of 200 μg/L for TCM set by Malaysia
Standard. A mean lifetime cancer risk of TCM was from 8.92×10-7 to 2.17×10-6 by oral
ingestion, from 8.63×10-7 to 2.10×10-6 by dermal absorption and from 2.52×10-6 to
6.13×10-6 by inhalation intake, respectively. Hazard index (HI) values were found
below unity for 4 districts implying that there would be less non-cancer risk. Inhalation
intake was found to be the main routes of exposure for cancer risk. While, oral ingestion
was found to be the main routes of exposure for non-cancer risk. | en_US |
