"Every advance has the potential to protect millions of people from sickness and death by delivering water that is both microbiologically safe and chemically cleaner." In a study published in Environmental Science and Technology, Virginia Tech researchers evaluated whether an alternative chlorine-based disinfectant could help achieve both goals.

About 98 percent of water utilities in the United States disinfect drinking water with chlorine and its compounds to protect communities from bacteria and other microbes that can cause serious illness.

Yet the same chemicals that kill harmful organisms can create dangerous compounds known as disinfection byproducts, which have been linked to health concerns such as bladder cancer and reproductive damage.

"Improving drinking water treatment remains one of the most important scientific challenges of our time," said civil and environmental eng…