The treatment and distribution of drinking water for safe use is a landmark achievement of the 20th century. Up through the end of the 19th century, typhoid fever, dysentery, and cholera killed thousands of Americans every year. Beginning in 1908, cities began treating drinking water with chlorine. Drinking water chlorination and filtration have helped to virtually eliminate these diseases in the United States.

This article is the third in a series from Grignard. Access part one here and read part two here.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regards the disinfection of drinking water as one of the most significant advances in public health.

Almost all drinking water systems in the United States that disinfect their water use some type of chlorine-based process, either alone or in combination with other disinfectants. In addition to controlling disease-causing organisms, chlorination offers several benefits, including:

• Reducing disagreeable odors
• Eliminating slime bacteria, molds, and algae that commonly grow in water supply reservoirs, on the walls of water mains, and in storage tanks
• Removing chemical compounds that have unpleasant tastes and hinder disinfection.

Chlorine levels up to four milligrams per liter (mg/L) or four parts per million (ppm) are considered safe in drinking water. At this level, harmful health effects are unlikely to occur.

EPA—a responsible steward for continued public health

In the early 1970s, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists first determined that drinking water chlorination could form a group of byproducts known as trihalomethanes (THMs), including chloroform. EPA set the first regulatory limits for THMs in 1979. While the available evidence does not prove that such disinfection byproducts in drinking water cause adverse health effects in humans, high levels of these chemicals are certainly undesirable

The potential health risks from these byproducts at the levels at which they occur in drinking water are extremely small in comparison with the real and known risks associated with inadequate disinfection. It has become a profound public health imperative that disinfection not be compromised in attempting to control such byproducts.

A 21st-century public health crisis—and new chemical innovation for good

With the arrival of COVID-19 in 2020, a group of scientists and engineers working with the Grignard Company, the leading producer of theatrical lighting effects products, came up with an exciting idea. In researching the safety of triethylene glycol (TEG), one of the primary ingredients in Grignard’s lighting effects products, they discovered that TEG was effective at killing harmful microorganisms. These scientists and engineers came to think that it would be possible to make a product that could be released into the air at levels that would kill the virus that causes COVID-19.

The science and engineering teams recognized that, if they were successful, a formulation with TEG as an active ingredient could become a valuable, groundbreaking tool in addressing the airborne spread of COVID-19, just as the introduction of chlorine in safe concentrations transformed the safety of United States’ drinking water.

Over the last two years, the science and engineering teams have overseen studies to determine whether such a product was feasible. Grignard Pure LLC, was spun off from Grignard Company LLC to focus on the development of a new airborne antimicrobial. It has sponsored research in multiple laboratories to assess the efficacy of such a product and found that low concentrations successfully killed a wide variety of airborne pathogens.

Multiple tests with the new product, called Grignard Pure®, indicate that it will kill more than 98% of the COVID-19 virus in the air in a few minutes. Commentary on the effectiveness of the product against surrogates of infectious viruses, bacteria, and mold spores can be reviewed in The Journal of Infectious Diseases here.

In addition, the engineering team conducted research to verify that it would be easy and practical to implement. Testing conducted in multiple locations has demonstrated that Grignard Pure can be used in almost any type and size range of indoor space, such as hotel rooms, auditoriums, and indoor arenas.

Finally, knowing that such a product would be safe to use was essential. Nonetheless, the company asked independent experts to assess the safety of the new product for use to combat COVID-19. The three separate reviews listed have evaluated the risks of Grignard Pure, and all have concluded that it poses, at most, minimal risk: Toxicology Risk Assessment, Risk Assessment for Use of Grignard Pure, and Inhalation Exposure to TEG in Grignard Pure Products.

TEG, like chlorine, shows that chemistry, science, and innovation can solve a public health crisis 

The responsible application of chemicals, guided by science in service to improving public health has been a hallmark of American ingenuity. The convergence of chemistry, science, and public health in the early 1900s catapulted America forward in eliminating the spread of deadly waterborne diseases.

Today, in the 2000s, this extensive research indicates that TEG, as an ingredient in Grignard Pure, can be effectively delivered at a concentration that poses little risk, while substantially reducing the level of a dangerous pathogen in the air.  In short, like chlorine, Grignard Pure has the potential to bring significant public health benefits in response to the latest public health crisis.