It took decades for scientists to ID chloronitramide anion; now they need to see how toxic it is
Some ice for your chloronitramide anion? No, that's not a libation you'd find at the Tatooine cantina in Star Wars, but a new chemical by-product in our tap water that's finally been IDed, reports the Washington Post . Research published Thursday in the journal Science notes that US drinking water is often treated with chloramine, a chlorine-ammonia mixture that kills bacteria and helps keep people from getting sick from the water they drink. However, as the chloramine decomposes, it results in the chloronitramide anion residue, and scientists now say the next task is to find out how harmful the by-product may be. "This work was 40 years in the making in terms of trying to identify the compound, and now that we have identified it, we can delve into how toxic ... this…