[Formation of organochlorine compounds in chlorination of water].

This paper is a short version of a comprehensive literature study with the same title. During the chlorination of drinking, bathing and waste water a great number of halogenated compounds may be formed by the reaction of the disinfection agent with substances present in water. The haloforms which are often used as key compounds are only the tip of the iceberg. Reaction pathways and a selection of products are presented. The difficulty of assessing the health risk of a lifelong exposure to such compounds is pointed out. At present it doesn't however seem to be justified to abolish water chlorination because of hints to a possible weak carcinogenic action, because the arising bacterial risk would be irresponsible high.