Evaluating Henry's law constant of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA).

N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a potential carcinogen, may contaminate the groundwater when the reclaimed wastewater is used for irrigation and groundwater recharge. Henry's law constant is a critical parameter to assess the fate and transport of reclaimed wastewater-borne NDMA in the soil profile. We conducted a laboratory experiment in which the change of NDMA concentration in water exposed to the atmosphere was measured with respect to time and, based on the data, obtained the dimensionless Henry's law constant (K(H)') of NDMA, at 1.0 x 10(-4). The K(H)' suggests that NDMA has a relatively high potential to volatilize in the field where NDMA-containing wastewater is used for irrigation and the volatilization loss may be a significant pathway of NDMA transport. The experiment was based on the two boundary-layer approach of mass transfer at the atmosphere-water interface. It is an expedient method to delineate K(H)' for volatile or semi-volatile compounds present in water at low concentrations.