Dibromochloromethane
Dibromochloromethane (DBCM) is one of the four trihalomethanes regulated as part of TTHM (limit 80 ppb), favored when source water contains bromide. Its EPA health goal (MCLG) is 0.06 mg/L.
EPA MCLG
0.06 mg/L
The level in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. This is a goal, not an enforceable limit.
Health Effects
Long-term exposure is associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer at the population level; the EPA and IARC classify it as a possible or probable human carcinogen. Liver, kidney, and central-nervous-system effects have been observed at high doses. The risk is chronic and lifetime, not acute.
Common Sources
- Byproduct of disinfecting drinking water with chlorine
- Formed when chlorine reacts with natural organic matter such as decaying leaves, runoff, and algae
- Elevated when the source water contains naturally occurring bromide
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The EPA MCLG for Dibromochloromethane is 0.06 mg/L. Upload your water test (PDF or a photo) and we'll email a plain-English reading of where your result lands — and every other number — free. Educational only, no medical claims.
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Upload my testHow to Remove Dibromochloromethane
How do I get rid of Dibromochloromethane in drinking water?
For Dibromochloromethane, the verified treatment is activated carbon. Activated carbon is a conditional treatment. Requires an NSF/ANSI 53 TTHM-certified carbon and adequate contact time; carbon adsorbs TTHM but breaks through over time. EPA's municipal BAT is GAC10/GAC20 with enhanced coagulation or softening.
Source: NSF/ANSI 53 (TTHM reduction) / EPA Stage 1 & 2 D/DBP Rule, 40 CFR 141.64
What filter certification covers Dibromochloromethane?
Activated carbon is certified under NSF/ANSI 53. Check that the certification listing names Dibromochloromethane or its group: a certification to a standard is not a certification for every contaminant in it.
Source: NSF/ANSI 53 (TTHM reduction) / EPA Stage 1 & 2 D/DBP Rule, 40 CFR 141.64
Does a basic water filter pitcher remove Dibromochloromethane?
Only if it is certified for it. A basic pitcher is an activated-carbon device and carbon does adsorb Dibromochloromethane, but only a pitcher certified under NSF/ANSI 53 for this reduction has been tested to do it, and the cartridge breaks through as it loads — so replacement on schedule is part of the answer. An NSF/ANSI 42 certification, which most pitchers carry, covers taste and odor only and says nothing about Dibromochloromethane.
Source: NSF/ANSI 53 (TTHM reduction) / EPA Stage 1 & 2 D/DBP Rule, 40 CFR 141.64
Does boiling water remove Dibromochloromethane?
Mostly, from the water you drink — and this is the half of the disinfection-byproduct group where that is true. Trihalomethanes are volatile, so heating drives Dibromochloromethane out of the water rather than destroying it: EPA measured volatilization losses approaching 75% when water was boiled even for brief periods, and 90% when the boiled water was poured and served. It leaves as vapour into the room, which is why the cited EPA work is about ingestion exposure — it lowers what you swallow, not what the household breathes. Open containers lost more than closed ones, because a lid traps the vapour. None of this is advice to boil your water: boiling does nothing for the non-volatile half of this group and can raise haloacetic acids where residual chlorine is present, so it is no treatment for disinfection byproducts as a group.
We name no filter for Dibromochloromethane. The certifiers' listings carry no reviewed claim under this name, so no product can be shown to have been tested against it — and a claim we cannot check is a claim we will not publish. Use the certification above and read the listing for Dibromochloromethane itself.
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Is Dibromochloromethane in your water?
We hold no measurement data for Dibromochloromethane yet. No water system in our data has reported a result for Dibromochloromethane above its health guideline.
That is a gap in the record, not a finding about anyone's water. A system reports a number only for what it tested for, and utilities are not required to test for every compound — so the absence of a result can mean it was never sampled, that the sampling was never reported, or that the report has not reached this index. It is not evidence that Dibromochloromethane is absent from any system's water. The only way to know for a given tap is a test of that tap.
Check a city or ZIP code for Dibromochloromethane
Part of a group: disinfection byproducts
This contaminant is rarely measured on its own. Disinfection byproducts in drinking water covers the whole group — what they are, which limits are enforceable, and where they come from.
Others in this group
About the EPA MCLG
The EPA MCLG is the level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. It is a non-enforceable public health goal, and is often stricter than the legal limit (MCL) water systems must meet.
Contaminant Type
Dibromochloromethane is classified as a Disinfection Byproducts contaminant.
Related Disinfection Byproducts Contaminants
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