研究表明，在氯消毒之前降低有机碳浓度会降低总THM的浓度，即四种单独物种的浓度之和。虽然总THM浓度随着有机碳的去除而降低，但溴化程度较高的THM浓度可能会增加。如果这些溴化程度更高的副产品特别危险，那么随着氯应用点的有机碳浓度降低，总体癌症风险可能会增加，从而破坏拟议的消毒副产品控制策略。 或者，如果这些溴化程度更高的THM物种的效力不那么严重，但相对于氯化的THM物种而言仍然很高，那么去除有机碳可能会导致风险降低很少或没有。考虑到上述问题，开展了风险建模工作，以评估水处理厂消毒前去除有机碳的副产品控制策略。研究确定了三个主要目标:确定不同程度的有机碳去除对癌症风险的影响； 评估水质对潜在风险降低的影响；并评估强化凝血在降低癌症风险方面的成本效益。为了实现上述目标，我们建立了一种方法，在降低癌症风险的基础上评估治疗升级替代方案的性能。

Research has shown that reducing organic carbon concentrations prior to chlorine disinfection reduces the concentration of total THMs, the sum of the concentrations of the four individual species. Although the total THM concentration decreases with removal of organic carbon, the concentrations of the more brominated THMs can increase. If these more brominated byproducts are particularly hazardous, the overall cancer risk could increase as organic carbon concentrations at the point of chlorine application are reduced, thereby undermining the proposed disinfection byproduct control strategy. Alternatively, if the potencies of these more brominated THM species are less severe but still high relative to their chlorinated counterparts, organic carbon removal could result in little or no risk reduction. Considering the above concerns, a risk modeling effort was undertaken to evaluate the byproduct control strategy of removing organic carbon prior to disinfection in water treatment plants. Three primary objectives were identified for investigation: determine how cancer risks change with various degrees of organic carbon removal; evaluate the impact of water quality on potential risk reduction; and estimate the cost-effectiveness of enhanced coagulation in reducing cancer risk. To accomplish the above objectives a methodology was established to evaluate the performance of treatment upgrade alternatives on the basis of cancer risk reduction achieved.