New IANZ accreditation for Geosmin and other taste and odour compounds
Eurofins-ELS has gained IANZ accreditation for taste and odour causing compounds in water. Councils producing drinking water from surface supplies encounter these compounds at different times of the year, and they are not removed by conventional treatment systems.
Eurofins-ELS can test for three compounds that can be found in source waters such as rivers and lakes or in reticulated town supply water. The three compound are:
Geosmin
The human nose is extremely sensitive to geosmin and some people are able to detect it at concentrations as low as 5 parts per trillion. This is a very small amount and is equivalent to 1 about drop of water diluted into 4 Olympic-size swimming pools, or about fifteen seconds out of every hundred thousand years.
Geosmin is an organic compound with a distinct earthy flavour and aroma produced by a type of Actinobacteria called Streptomyces, and is responsible for the earthy taste of beets and a contributor to the strong scent that occurs in the air when rain falls after a dry spell of weather or when soil is disturbed.
2-Methylisoborneol (MIB)
(MIB) is an organic chemical with a strong odour that can be detected at very low levels. It is one of the chemicals that affects the quality of drinking water. Some algae, particularly blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) such as Anabaena, produce MIB together with geosmin.
2,4,6-Trichloroanisole (TCA)
TCA is a chemical compound that can be produced when bacteria such as Actinomycetes react with chlorinated phenolic compounds. TCA produces earthy, musty and mouldy aromas.
