Mystery chemical in drinking water identified after 40 years—and nobody knows if it's toxic

Woman with long red hair filling her water bottle at the sink (Credit: Getty Images)

Do you know what’s in your drinking water? Scientists finally do, after solving a 40-year mystery about a chemical byproduct that kept showing up in tap water, which had them baffled.  

The new chemical compound—observed in tap water by scientists for decades—had remained unidentified, due to difficulties separating it from the high-salinity (saltier) water it was found in. But dogged researchers found a way, and now, according to a Nov. 21 research article published in the journal Science, there is a name for the compound: chloronitramide.