Congratulations to Yoshika Crider on a useful investigation! Note that Elsevier is making this paper available free of charge through 10 November 2017 at this link.
Can you taste it? Taste detection and acceptability thresholds for chlorine residual in drinking water in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Yoshika Crider, Sonia Sultana, Leanne Unicomb, Jennifer Davis, Stephen P. Luby, Amy J. Pickering
Abstract
Chlorination
is a low-cost, effective method for drinking water treatment, but
aversion to the taste or smell of chlorinated water can limit use of
chlorine treatment products. Forced choice triangle tests were used to
evaluate chlorine detection and acceptability thresholds for two common
types of chlorine among adults in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where previous
studies have found low sustained uptake of chlorine water treatment
products. The median detection threshold was 0.70 mg/L (n = 25,
SD = 0.57) for water dosed with liquid sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and
0.73 mg/L (n = 25, SD = 0.83) for water dosed with solid sodium
dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC). Median acceptability thresholds (based on
user report) were 1.16 mg/L (SD = 0.70) for NaOCl and 1.26 mg/L
(SD = 0.67) for NaDCC. There was no significant difference in detection
or acceptability thresholds for dosing with NaOCl versus NaDCC. Although
users are willing to accept treated water in which they can detect the
taste of chlorine, their acceptability limit is well below the 2.0 mg/L
that chlorine water treatment products are often designed to dose. For
some settings, reducing dose may increase adoption of chlorinated water
while still providing effective disinfection.
