Electrophilic chlorination: New Products, Improved Processes, and their Toxicological and Environmental Implications

Chlorinated hydrocarbons are a diverse group of compounds which provide enormous economic and social benefit, but some of them are hazardous to human health and the environment. The aim of this research is to develop new and safer compounds, and improved processes for their manufacture, through electrophilic chlorination. Similar processes are likely to occur on exposure of proteins and other organic materials to chlorine-based disinfectants, for example during chlorination of drinking water, and the environmental and physiologicakl consequences of such reactions will also be investigated. The project will also facilitate continued informed public debate in this area.