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Unveiling the mammalian cell cytotoxicity of tyre-impacted water in disinfection

Nature Water volume 3, pages 902–912 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Tyre-related chemicals, which enter the aquatic environment through surface runoff, are of growing concern owing to their high ecotoxicity and ubiquitous occurrence. However, their toxicological effects in drinking water remain unknown. Here, using Chinese hamster ovary cell cytotoxicity as the metric, we found that chloramine, chlorine and ozone disinfection substantially elevated the cytotoxicity of tyre-impacted water (5.0-, 4.0- and 1.4-fold increases, respectively). These were 3.1–6.0 times as high as disinfected pristine lake waters. Toxicity correlates with halogenated (especially brominated and iodinated) products formed from reactions between additives and disinfectants based on non-target analysis. Thirty-three chemicals (for example, benzothiazoles, phenols, benzophenones and arylamines) accounting for <5% of total carbon mass and their transformation products contributed to 25–36% of the cytotoxicity of disinfected tyre-impacted water. The cytotoxicity of drinking water could be substantially elevated in extreme precipitation events. This research advances our understanding of toxicological effects from tyre-related chemicals for drinking-water sources with intensive tyre particle impact, suggesting the need for pretreatment strategies and environmentally benign tyre additives.

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Fig. 1: CHO cell cytotoxicity of non-disinfected and disinfected tyre-impacted waters.
Fig. 2: Distributions of features identified as reactants (that is, abated) and products formed upon disinfection and their relationship with cytotoxicity increment.
Fig. 3: Concentration of representative chemicals in tyre-impacted water and their reactivity towards disinfectants.
Fig. 4: Tentatively identified transformation pathways of representative chemicals based on UPLC Q-TOF MS analyses of tyre-impacted waters.
Fig. 5: CHO cell cytotoxicity of representative chemicals and their contributions to cytotoxicity of tyre-impacted waters.
Fig. 6: The environmental relevance of tyre-impacted drinking-water sources.

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Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supplementary Information. Detailed methods, chromatograms and transformation pathways of representative chemicals upon disinfection are provided in Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This study was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project nos. 52388101 to C.L. and C.H., 52370019 to C.L. and 52300019 to H.L.). We thank F. Zhang and F. Zhai for the experimental assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Environmental Aquatic Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Regional Environment and Sustainability, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Hang Liu, Chengzhi Hu & Chao Liu

  2. School of Food and Biological Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, China

    Renqi Wang

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Chengzhi Hu & Chao Liu

  4. Department of Crop Sciences and the Safe Global Water Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Michael J. Plewa

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Contributions

C.L. designed and supervised the study. H.L. performed experiments and compiled all the data. R.W. performed UPLC Q-TOF MS analysis and data processing. H.L. and C.L. performed data analysis and wrote the original paper. C.H., M.J.P. and C.L. reviewed and edited the paper. All the authors provided feedback and discussed the paper.

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Correspondence to Chao Liu.

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Nature Water thanks Naiyun Gao and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary notes, Figs. 1–40, Tables 1–12 and Schemes 1–20.

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Supplementary Dataset 1

Source data for Supplementary Figs. 37 and 39.

Source data

Source Data Figs. 1 and 5

Data for the generation of concentration–response curves in Figs. 1 and 5.

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Liu, H., Wang, R., Hu, C. et al. Unveiling the mammalian cell cytotoxicity of tyre-impacted water in disinfection. Nat Water 3, 902–912 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-025-00469-w

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