What is acrylamide anyway?
Acrylamide, first synthesized in 1949, is an odourless solid that takes the form of either flake-like crystals or a 30-50 per cent aqueous solution. The primary use of acrylamide, accounting for about 90 percent of all industrial use, is as a chemical intermediate in the production of a type of plastic called polyacrylamide, which has a variety of uses. For example, the treatment of drinking water in some municipalities may include the removal of suspended particles by “flocculation” with polyacrylamide, or to remove suspended solids from industrial waste water before discharge, reuse, or disposal. Because the polyacrylamide was once often contaminated with residual acrylamide, both the U.S. and Canada now require a treatment technique to limit levels of acrylamide in drinking water. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration’s Consumer Factsheet on Acrylamide, the EPA requires American water suppliers to show that when acrylamide is added to water, the amount of unc
