Chlorinated tyrosine in municipal waste treatment plant products after superchlorination

Previous work has shown that 3, 5-dibromotyrosine acts as a thyroxine production/secretion inhibitor which may imply a similar response to chlorotyrosine derivatives. Chloro- and dichlorotyrosine have been produced in the laboratory by the action of aqueous chlorine upon tyrosine at low pH, and have been found in the effluent from superchlorination facilities in use at three municipal waste treatment plants. The extent to which these and other possible chlorinated amino acids occur in superchlorinated waste products, and their fate in receiving streams is not known, and is under investigation by this laboratory.