Bromomethane
Bromomethane is used to kill pests such as rats and bugs. Safe Home offer a couple kits that provide drinking water testing for bromomethane in city and well water supplies.
Parameter Type: Drinking Water Testing for Volatiles
Parameter Name: Bromomethane
What it is and Where it Comes From:
Bromomethane, commonly known as methyl bromide, is an organobromine compound with formula CH3Br. This colorless, odorless, nonflammable gas is produced both industrially and biologically. At high concentrations, it has a musty or fruity smell. It has a tetrahedral shape, and it is a recognized ozone-depleting chemical. It was used extensively as a pesticide until being phased out by most countries in the early 2000s. A person can come into contact with bromomethane by being in an area where the gas is being used as a pesticide to kill insects (in soil or in buildings). Drinking water testing gives you several benefits like peace of mind, identifying contaminants in your water, and insight into health concerns. Safe Home offers Laboratory drinking water testing kits for bromomethane, allowing you to collect your water sample and ship it directly to our EPA-Certified Laboratory. This platform of drinking water testing for bromomethane will give you an accurate level based on the lowest level of a parameter our instruments can detect (Method Detection Level). Safe Home drinking water testing for volatiles can be used for city and well water supplies. Drinking water testing should be done any time you notice a significant change in your water quality.
Health Effects:
Animal studies suggest that if you swallow bromomethane in water, most of it will be absorbed by your body through your stomach or intestines. Your blood carries bromomethane from your lungs and stomach to other parts of your body. Most bromomethane in your body is broken down into other chemicals which leave your body in the urine or in the air you breathe out. This usually starts happening in minutes. In a few days it is completed. We do not know how much bromomethane can enter through the skin, but the amount is thought to be small. Exposure can also be fatal, although most people are not exposed to bromomethane at such deadly levels. At high levels, bromomethane causes the skin to itch, as well as redness and blisters. Animal studies suggest that bromomethane does not cause birth defects at low levels of exposure. These studies also suggest that bromomethane may affect reproduction at high exposure levels. It is unknown as to whether long-term exposure to low levels causes severe nervous system damage in people. Scientists do not know if bromomethane causes cancer in people.
Solutions to Contaminant Levels:
After drinking water testing, what is the next step? You can get rid of the bromomethane from drinking water with Reverse Osmosis (RO) and activated carbon. Reverse osmosis is a process that removes foreign contaminants, solid substances, large molecules, and minerals from water by using pressure to push it through specialized membranes. Here’s how reverse osmosis works. Unlike osmosis, which is a passive process, reverse osmosis requires external force (pressure) to work. Pressure is applied to a highly concentrated solute solution, such as salt water, to pass through a membrane to a lower concentrate solution. The membrane allows water to flow through but blocks out larger molecules, like contaminants. The reverse osmosis process leaves higher concentrations of solute on one side and only the solvent, or freshwater, on the other. Carbon filtering is a method of filtering that uses a bed of activated carbon to remove impurities from a fluid using adsorption. Carbon filtering works by adsorption, in which pollutants in the fluid to be treated are trapped inside the pore structure of a carbon substrate. The substrate is made of many carbon granules, each of which is itself highly porous. As a result, the substrate has a large surface area within which contaminants can be trapped. Activated carbon is typically used in filters, as it has been treated to have a much higher surface area than non-treated carbon. Who do I need to contact to find out more information about water quality in my area? Every community water supplier must provide an annual report to its customers, known as a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR). The report provides information on your local drinking water quality, including the water’s source, contaminants found in the water, and how consumers can get involved in protecting drinking water. How often does the local public water system preform drinking water testing? Frequency of drinking water testing depends on the number of people served, the type of water source, and types of contaminants. Certain contaminants are tested more frequently than others, as established by the Safe Drinking Water Act. You can find out about levels of regulated contaminants in your treated water for the previous calendar year in your annual Consumer Confidence Report (CCR).
